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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26615839">The Punisher</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsabrix/pseuds/xsabrix'>xsabrix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>BLYTON Enid - Works, Malory Towers - Enid Blyton</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comedy, Drama, F/F, Friendship, Gen, General teen cattiness, Mystery, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:40:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,865</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26615839</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsabrix/pseuds/xsabrix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone in the fifth form is playing harmful, dangerous tricks on their fellow fifth form sinners at Malory Towers...who is this self described "Punisher"? How mysterious! Who is this? Why is she doing this? And who will she strike next? Teenage drama and conflict ensues, as expected.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Vanity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is set somewhere between the fifth and sixth books - the last term of the fifth, if you will. Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zerelda looked at her reflection and pulled a face.</p><p>She looked so <em>dreary</em>, so plain.</p><p>She usually tried to shake off these thoughts, scolding herself for her vanity; she knew she had made the right choice when she had decided to wash the blonde dye out of her hair, wipe her makeup of for good, stop posing like a Hollywood actress, and settle down to be just another sensible schoolgirl.</p><p>But sometimes – especially during <em>that</em> time of the month, when she dreaded looking at the suddenly bloated, acne filled face in the mirror - she longed to be able to wear makeup like her favorite movie stars and make herself look pretty. What was so wrong with wanting to look glamorous? After all, it was the norm in America, at least at the school she used to go to.</p><p><em>Well, you’re not in America anymore</em>, she chided herself silently. <em>You haven't been in America for nearly three years!</em> On days like this she got frustrated with herself; hadn’t she learned her lesson at all? But oh, she so hated to see herself looking like this.</p><p>“Say, Zerelda, what’s up? You’ve been staring at yourself in that mirror with a look of disgust on your face for the past ten minutes,” Alicia called out from across the room, her hawk-like eyes sizing her up.</p><p>Zerelda swiveled round and smiled her good natured smile.</p><p>“Oh, nothing,” she replied. “I’m just full of spots today. Gee, I hate them!”</p><p>Darrell studied her face and laughed, rolling her eyes.</p><p>“You idiot, you only have one measly spot on your chin! And you can barely see it. Why, if you hadn’t pointed it out I’d never have noticed it.”</p><p>“Gee, you’re sweet”, murmured Zerelda, sighing in discontent at her reflection. Mavis walked over and gave her a teasing nudge in the ribs.</p><p> "Don’t you start paying so much attention to those looks of yours! We know that’s your weakness, you vain thing. Soon you’ll be dying your hair that awful brassy color again!”</p><p>The girls laughed, including Zerelda.</p><p>“You’re right! Sometimes I think I haven’t learned my lesson at all! I still long for the day I can wear lipstick again”, she laughed. “Or at the very least some powder to cover up this awful spot.”</p><p>“If your taste in lipstick is anything like that cheap bright red you wore in the third form, you’re better off without it, I must say!” chimed in Gwendoline’s snobby voice. “And I don’t think anything could cover that up. You <em>are</em> vain, Zerelda!”</p><p> “At least she only has one spot, unlike your acne filled face,” Alicia cut her off in her smooth, wicked voice. “You should cut down on the chocolate, my dear Gwen. Vanity’s not a sin, gluttony, on the other hand…”</p><p>Gwendoline’s face turned red. She opened her mouth, ready to retort – but then closed it, knowing she was no match for Alicia’s sharp tongue. Even in the sixth form, she was still scared of the cutting remarks that tongue could make at her expense!</p><p>The girls began heading out for breakfast.</p><p>“Are you coming?” Mavis called out to her friend.</p><p>“You go ahead. I’ll be down in a minute!” smiled Zerelda.  </p><p>She looked at her reflection again and fixed her plaits. How awful she looked. Surely a bit of lipstick couldn’t hurt? Just a little bit of that pale pink she had bought in the holidays. It was hardly noticeable, but it gave her lips a bit of color, and made her feel like she looked a little more decent, at least. She rolled it on her lips and smiled. That was a little better, and though some of the girls might notice, the mistresses wouldn’t. Shame she didn’t have anything to cover up that spot.</p><hr/><p>“Zerelda! You have lipstick on! I just realized!” hooted Alicia with myrth after staring at the girl intently for a few seconds.</p><p> It was five o’clock, and the girls were busy doing their prep in the common room. Except for Alicia, who as usual, was lounging lazily in an armchair, having finished her prep in under twenty minutes.  </p><p>Mavis laughed.</p><p>“You, the Alicia who always notices absolutely everything that goes on, just realized? She’s been wearing it all day!” she said.</p><p>Zerelda smiled sheepishly.</p><p>“Just a little pink to bright up my day!” she replied, grinning.</p><p> “Well, to be fair, I only saw Zerelda properly this morning, I believe – I was too busy sleeping during Geography and French, and at tea time I was too busy staring at Gwendoline Mary, marveling at how many pop tarts she can eat under one minute,” laughed Alicia.</p><p>Gwendoline scowled, and Belinda quickly whipped out her sketchbook of scowl collections and began drawing rapidly.</p><p>“You actually <em>did</em> fall asleep during Geography! I had to nudge you twice!” exclaimed Darrell, shaking her head in mock disapproval.</p><p>“It’s so <em>boring</em>. I can’t help it. Also, she wasn’t saying anything I don’t already know,” yawned Alicia in her lazy manner.</p><p> “You sloth. I couldn’t believe you had actually fallen asleep,” laughed Darrell.</p><p> “What were you saying today, about the seven sins? Isn’t sloth one of them?” asked Bill slyly, smirking.</p><p>Laughter rippled around the common room as Alicia regarded Bill with a mixture of amusement and mock indignation.</p><p>“You’d be one to talk about sins!” she replied, with a knowing smirk. “Lust would be yours. For that horse of yours. You positively lust after horses, both you and Clarissa.”</p><p>Bill, who had looked slightly scared for some reason at first, let out a bark of what sounded like relieved laughter.</p><p> “Yes, of course. Horses,” she laughed, her voice slightly higher pitched than usual.</p><p> “Oh, don’t talk about sins like that! All that stuff quite scares me,” chimed in Mary-Lou’s small voice plaintively, her eyes wide. “The bible says you go to hell if you sin!”</p><p> “Saint Catherine agrees with you, I’m sure,” snorted Alicia.</p><p>Catherine smiled her sweet saccharine smile.</p><p>“Oh, not at all. You girls might call me saint Catherine, because I’m so good, I suppose - but I’m sure even saints can take a little joking around by children,” she beamed. </p><p>The girls rolled their eyes at Catherine’s condescending, sickly sweet tone.</p><p>“Say, if all of us had to be the embodiment of one of the seven sins…who would be which one?” Alicia wondered out loud, her wicked eyes gleaming. “We already established Gwen would be gluttony. And greed. And envy. Most of them, come to think of it…”</p><p>“You beast!” exploded Gwen, her face red. “You always have to bring me into things. I’m sick of it!”</p><p>“There’s wrath!” grinned Alicia, pumping her fist in the air. “One more, Gwen. Give us one more sin! Give us a bit of pride!”</p><p>Gwendoline got up from her chair and stormed off.</p><p> “There it is!” Alicia called out, putting both arms up in the air in mock victory. </p><p> “Stop talking,” Moira snapped suddenly from the corner of the common room. “We’re trying to do our prep, and so should you, Alicia.”</p><p> Alicia raised her eyebrows and sat up.</p><p> “And I suppose you think you speak for everyone, do you?” she asked, her voice dangerously smooth.</p><p>The girls looked at each other uncomfortably. Some of them had begun to feel annoyed by Alicia’s constant talking, but nobody wanted to side with the domineering head girl.</p><p>“I don’t care who agrees with me. I’m head girl, so I tell you what to do. And I’m telling you to stop this incessant rambling,” replied Moira curtly, her eyes on the book in front of her.</p><p>"I don’t think you –" began Alicia, but Darrell gave her a warning look and she subsided.</p><p> There were two minutes of silence while the girls concentrated on their prep, before Alicia spoke again, almost under her breath...but just audible enough.</p><p>“You’d definitely be ‘pride’, bitch” she muttered.</p><p>Moira looked up, anger flaring up in her face.</p><p>“What did you call me?”</p><p>“Honestly, Moira, be quiet; we’re trying to do our prep,” smirked Alicia.</p><p> The girls stifled giggles. Honestly, Alicia could be so infuriating and hilarious at once.</p><p> "Fine. I’m going to do my prep in my room,” snapped Moira.</p><p>“Yes, please go, you’re really disturbing us,” replied Alicia, imitating the head girl’s dry tone perfectly.</p><p>Irene gave one of her snorts, which she quickly covered up with a cough. She didn’t want to get on Moira’s bad side, no matter how much she might dislike her. She was head girl, after all, and could be very – not vengeful, exactly, but prideful; she wasn’t one to easily forgive anyone who got on her bad side, and could cold-shoulder somebody for ages.</p><p>“Fine. Alicia, you’re out of the fifth’s form hockey team for the rest of term,” stated Moira curtly, getting up from her chair. Alicia’s mouth fell open.</p><p>“You can’t do that!” she exclaimed. “Darrell – “</p><p>“Darrell can’t help you. I’m head of the form, and joint head girl of the entire school.”</p><p>“I’m captain of games, Moira. You can’t ban Alicia, she’s one of our best players,” Darrell complained.</p><p>“We’ll see about that. The head girl rules over games captain, you know that. So that’s it.”</p><p>Darrell started to flare up, but Sally put a steadying hand on her shoulder.</p><p>“It’s no use losing your temper, old thing!” she hissed. “I’m sure she can’t do that. We’ll talk to Miss Greyling tomorrow.”</p><p> Darrell sighed wearily as Moira marched out of the common room.</p><p>“Oh, Alicia, did you have to anger her like that? You know how she is!” she exploded, angry and infuriated. It really would be a loss to the team if Alicia was banned for the rest of the term. Blow Moira, and blow Alicia! Could they never have a normal, drama free term? It was like the pantomime all over again!</p><p>“I’m sorry, Darrell! But she just acts so superior all the time, it’s sickening”, replied Alicia.</p><p>"Can’t you just apologize?” asked Sally. “Right now, before she gets more hard headed about it.”</p><p>“I can’t do that. I’m not going to bend down to her, that’s exactly what she wants. I’d rather be kicked out of the team.” Replied Alicia shortly.</p><p>“Who’s ‘pride’ now?” groaned Darrell. “You’re just as bad as she is!”</p><p>“And you’re ‘wrath’!” retorted Alicia, grinning. “Calm down, old thing. Like Sally said, I’m sure she can’t even ban me.”</p><p>Darrell rolled her eyes and smiled slightly despite herself, regarding her friend with a mixture of exasperation and fondness.</p><p>"You really are infuriating, you know.”</p><p>“Part of my charm,” drawled Alicia.</p><p>“All right; that’s enough talk about sins,” said Sally, with a slight edge to her voice. Alicia looked at Sally out of the corner of her eye, and could see something else had bothered her apart from the subject matter, and apart from the recent drama. Alicia’s sharp eyes had caught Sally’s frown at seeing Darrell’s fond look directed towards herself. She had caught Sally’s frown many times, always provoked by this. Darrell couldn’t help being fond of Alicia, and both Alicia and Sally knew that. Alicia merely used it to her benefit, but it made Sally jealous.</p><p>Alicia caught the jealous girl’s eye and grinned innocently, but Sally could tell what the glint in her eyes were saying as clearly as if she had spoken the words out loud: <em>“you’d be envy.”</em></p><p>
  
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>The next morning, Alicia, Gwendoline and Maureen - always the last three to get out of bed - were awoken by a loud scream.</p><p>“What happened?” mumbled Gwen, sitting up and squinting her eyes. Alicia got up with a start, and the girls swiveled around to face Zerelda, who was clutching her mouth, tears streaming down her face – and blood streaming down her hands. They gasped, staring in shock.</p><p>“My lip!” cried Zerelda. “It’s been cut!”</p><p>Everyone stood still, not knowing exactly what to do. Surprisingly, little Mary-Lou was the first to take charge, rushing towards the American girl.</p><p>“Go to the bathroom and turn the tap on,” she ordered Daphne. She took hold of Zerelda’s arm and pulled her quickly towards the bathroom, were Daphne had shakily turned the tap on and stood, pale-faced, staring at the cut lip.</p><p>“We have to clean the affected area,” said Mary-Lou, ducking the girl’s head towards the running water, gently cleaning the lip with soap. “We’ll need some ice. Someone run to the kitchen and get an ice pack.”</p><p>Mavis ran out, and came back a few minutes later with an ice pack in a small bag, given to her by the school’s cook. Zerelda was now sitting on a bed, applying pressure with a cloth to stop the bleeding.</p><p>Mary-Lou covered the ice with the cloth and pressed it again to the poor girl’s lip.</p><p>“This will prevent the swelling a bit. It’ll still be a bit swollen, I’m afraid. It doesn’t seem to be a very deep cut, thank goodness,” she sighed, inspecting it.</p><p>Alicia stared at the scene.</p><p>“You’ll be a jolly good nurse, Mary-Lou, that’s all I can say,” she marveled, staring with newfound respect at the small girl.</p><p>“How on earth did you cut your lip like that?” exclaimed Catherine, her eyes wide.</p><p>“It was the lipstick!” cried Zerelda, her voice muffled under the cloth. “It cut me!”</p><p>The girls stared at each other in amazement. How on earth could a lipstick do <em>that</em>?</p><p>Moira walked towards the mirror were Zerelda had been applying her lipstick and picked up the pink tube. She inspected it closely for a few seconds and let out a cry of disgust.</p><p>“Someone put a needle in it!” she exclaimed.</p><p>“What?!” the girls yelled in unison, hardly believing their ears.</p><p>“Look!”</p><p>The girls crowded around Moira, and by god, she was right! In the middle of the pink, waxy lipstick, was a thin, pointy needle, so think you almost couldn’t see it.</p><p> “Jesus. Who would do something so beastly?” whispered Daphne, her face pale and contorted with utter disgust.</p><p>The girls were speechless. This went beyond a harmless trick; it was a sick mind who would do something as dangerous and harmful as this.</p><p>“I’ll make Zerelda’s bed for her,” Darrell finally said, her voice shaking slightly.</p><p>There was a somber silence as Mary-Lou checked on the bleeding to see if it had stopped, and Darrell began making Zerelda’s bed. Suddenly, there was another exclamation of disgust, this time from Darrell.</p><p>The girls swiveled around, wondering what it could possibly be this time. She stood up, waving a piece of paper in her hand.</p><p>“The person who did this left a beastly little note... ‘<em>Vanity: it may not me a sin, but it definitely is to THE PUNISHER. Sinners beware!’” </em>her face twisted with rage as she read it aloud.</p><p>Everyone immediately turned to Alicia, shock all over their faces.</p><p>“Alicia! Surely – surely you didn’t...” began Sally, her eyes wide.</p><p>Alicia stared back in disbelief.</p><p>“Of course not! I’m not a <em>psychopath</em>, for god’s sake!”</p><p>“You were the one spouting all that idiotic stuff about sinners yesterday,” Moira pointed out, crossing her arms and staring coldly at the other girl.</p><p>“I was <em>joking</em>! Not that you would know what a joke is,” snapped back Alicia.</p><p>“You’re the one who doesn’t seem to know what a joke is, or the difference between a joke and <em>cutting someone,</em>” shot back the head girl.</p><p>“Stop!”, cried Darrell. “Alicia’s already said it wasn’t her!”</p><p> “And you believe her?” sneered Gwendoline. “She’s the only one who could think of pulling a mean trick like this. Of course it’s her.”</p><p>“You came up to the dorm to sulk before any of us last night; and we all know what you’re capable of doing when you’re sulking and angry,” retorted Alicia, red with rage.</p><p>“Stop, all of you!” snapped Mary-Lou. “We’ll talk about this later. The only thing that matters right now, is taking Zerelda to the San so Matron can give her something for the pain.”</p><p>The girls fell silent, somewhat shocked at seeing little Mary-Lou taking charge in such a sensible way. It was evident Mary-Lou was good at keeping calm during a medical crisis and taking charge to make sure the proper assistance was given! She would make a fine nurse someday.</p><p>“If we go to Matron, I don’t want her knowing how I was cut,” said Zerelda, wincing as she spoke. “It’s much too embarrassing.”</p><p>“Zerelda, this has to be reported,” said Mavis, frowning. “It’s much too serious.”</p><p>“Don’t, please! Gee, I don’t want people to think I’ve gone back to my old, vain ways. It’s what got me into this mess in the first place. I kinda deserved it, honestly,” she sighed, her American drawl coming out strongly, as it always did whenever she was stressed.</p><p>Mavis opened her mouth to protest, but Mary-Lou interjected.</p><p>“All right. We’ll say you were licking an envelope and got a paper cut – I don’t think Matron is likely to believe that, but we have to get you some medicine for the pain and swelling. We’ll say that for now and decide what to do later. Come on, Zerelda.”</p><p>Zerelda nodded and stood up, pressing the ice to her lip, and let Mary-Lou lead her out of the room.</p><p>“We’ll decide what to do in the evening. We must go down to breakfast now,” ordered Moira. For once, nobody objected to her dictatorial tone, not even Alicia; they merely nodded and made their way to the dining hall, feeling most solemn at the thought of there being such a beastly trickster among them. Only one of them smirked to herself, unnoticed by the rest. This was only the beginning, she thought to herself; they didn’t even know what was coming.</p><p><em> “Who is this?”</em> all but one wondered; <em>“and who will they strike next?”</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was two o’clock in the afternoon, and Bill and Clarissa were spending their free period, as usual, in and behind the stables. They were lying peacefully on the grass, their faces turned towards the sun, Clarissa’s mass of red hair spread across the tomboy’s chest, feeling it rising and falling underneath her with each breath. She loved to lie like this, to press her ear against the other girl’s heart and hear it beating, knowing how tender it was under her all that exterior bravado and strength.</p><p>“I’m rather uneasy about Alicia, you know,” murmured Bill suddenly. Clarissa looked up and frowned.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>"I mean…I don’t know. It’s awfully coincidental she was talking about sinning and all that and then Zerelda…” she trailed off, her brow furrowing with worry.</p><p>“Oh, Bill, surely you don’t think Alicia could be capable of something as awful as that!” exclaimed Clarissa, sitting up, her green eyes wide.</p><p>“I don’t know. I hope not. I think she might have gotten carried away with the trick…maybe she wanted Zerelda to see the needle and freak out, not actually cut her.”</p><p>“Oh Bill, that needle was obviously not meant to be seen; it was so thin and hidden! I can’t believe Alicia would do that, and then lie about it. She has her faults, but she isn’t a liar,” complained the red-head.</p><p>Bill smiled, reaching up her hand to grab her girlfriend’s hair and run through with it with her fingers, like she always did when she was in need of comfort, or when she was merely thoughtful. She loved that hair.</p><p>“I expect you’re right. I’m just worried about…” she trailed off again, bititng her lip.</p><p>“About what, darling?”</p><p>“Well…that thing she said in the common room, the night before Zerelda’s lip got cut. About us being lustful.”</p><p>Clarissa laughed softly.</p><p>“Oh, Bill. You’re reading too much into what she said. She was making a joke about us being horse-mad, as she always does.”</p><p> Bill shook her head.</p><p>“I know, but I can’t help wondering if she knows, and she covered it up by adding the horses in. Maybe it was a threat…”</p><p>“Oh, Bill!” groaned Clarissa. “Soon you’ll be saying Alicia’s plotting to send us to hell for being deviants! Don’t be so paranoid. It was a joke, that’s all. There’s no way she knows; we’re always so careful.”</p><p>Bill raised her eyebrows.</p><p>“Oh, all right. Maybe we aren’t as careful as we should be. But nobody’s seen us doing anything too improper, I’m sure. Why, girls lie on the grass the way we do and no one thinks anything of it.”</p><p>“Not quite as close together as we do”, smirked Bill.</p><p>“True”, admitted Clarissa. “Still; don’t fret so, dear. I’m sure even if Alicia knew, she wouldn’t do anything to harm us.”</p><p>Bill nodded doubtfully, still worried. Clarissa was naive when it came to matters like these; she didn’t know just how much people could hate you and disapprove of you for this sort of thing. Of course, how could she know? She wasn’t like Bill, who, due to her suspiciously boyish looks and mannerisms, had been on the receiving end of that disapproval for as long as she could remember, even if she <em>wasn’t</em> fooling around with any girl. Why, she hadn’t fooled around with <em>any</em> girl before Clar, and yet, people merely looked at her and thought, <em>dyke</em>.</p><p>It had been all right when she was little; people wouldn’t think anything of it, for the most part; some would raise their eyebrows, but most would laugh and claim she’d ‘grow out of it’, and assume it was only normal since she had been raised with seven brothers. But when Bill reached fifteen or so, and hadn’t yet ‘grown out of it’ – whatever she was supposed to ‘grow out’ of –  she realized she was doomed to receiving dirty looks and wary glances, as well as the occasional slur. It began with small things; a woman eyeing her suspiciously at the bakery and holding her small daughter against her protectively – as if she was that kind of disgusting deviant! Bill had thought with disdain; the girl was hardly ten years old! – her neighbor greeting her brothers cheerfully but her smile beginning to falter at the sight of the growing Bill, her mother begging her to grow her hair out and wear a dress when her friends had begun to make comments. Then, one day, it escalated to a boy pushing her to the ground, and yelling that word: “<em>filthy dyke</em>!”</p><p>Clarissa, on the other hand, being pretty, dainty and feminine as she was, had never experienced this; she had always been well liked, smiled upon; approved. How could she know how vile people could be? The truth was, Bill was afraid for her. Afraid that if people found out, and begun treating her the way Bill was often treated for being herself, she wouldn’t be able to take it. Nobody prepares you for that kind of hatred.</p><p>She wrapped her arms around the smaller girl, planting a kiss on her forehead. Bill didn’t mind if this trickster hurt her, but she would be damned if she let anyone hurt Clarissa.</p><hr/><p>The girls crowded around the common room that evening, solemn and quiet. Moira had called for a meeting about the dirty trick played on Zerelda. Poor Zerelda had a swollen lip and looked absolutely miserable at looking so, as she put it, “darn ugly.”</p><p>“Let’s cut to the chase,” began Moira curtly. “Who did this?”</p><p>There was silence, and Alicia snorted.</p><p>“Whoever did this is obviously a lying snake. What makes you think they’re going to have a change of heart and confess? Especially to you. Bitch.”</p><p>Darrell rolled her eyes, sighing. Alicia had been insufferable all day; the talk with Miss Greyling had not gone the way they had expected. Darrell had gone up to Moira beforehand; she couldn’t believe the girl <em>actually</em> intended on banning Alicia from hockey for something so silly, especially now, when there were more pressing matters going on – like that psychopathic trickster.</p><p>“Say, Moira, you’re not really intending on banning Alicia, are you?” she had asked, her eyes pleading. But that was typical Darrell, always thinking people would act the way she herself would; if the roles had been reversed, and it had been Darrell in Moira’s place, she would have just laughed, slapped the other girl on the shoulder and said she had only been trying to scare Alicia, or that she had merely spoken out of anger, and that she had already forgotten all about it; but not Moira. Moira’s anger wasn’t hot and quick like Darrell’s; it was prideful and lasting. She had raised a cold eyebrow at Darrell’s question like it was the most idiotic question she had ever heard.</p><p>“I’m not <em>intending</em> on anything…”</p><p>Darrell had sighed with relief -</p><p>“…she <em>is </em>banned already.”</p><p>Darrell had groaned, exasperated.</p><p>“Oh, come on. You can’t do that, Moira!” she had wailed.</p><p>"There’s no matter of my <em>doing</em> anything; I already <em>have</em>,” Moira had snapped. “She insulted me. That’s her punishment.”</p><p>“It’s <em>Alicia</em>, she insults <em>everyone</em>! If everyone punished her every time she was insulting, she’d be…I don’t know, dead!” she had exclaimed, and then sighed.</p><p>“Alicia and I are going to talk about this with Miss Greyling after lessons, to ask her if you’re actually allowed to do that…you’re welcome to come along and defend yourself.”</p><p>Darrell hadn't been too worried about going to talk to Miss Greyling, for she had been sure she would take their side, not Moira’s. Surely being head girl didn't give her that kind of authority!</p><p>And she <em>had</em> taken their side, at first.</p><p>“Darrell is games captain,” the head had pointed out, in her grave voice. “However, Moira, you must have a reason to want Alicia banned – is she not a good player? Does she not play fair?”</p><p>“Well…there is a reason; but I don’t want to tell tales,” Moira had replied, stiffly. “She was disrespectful towards me.”</p><p>Alicia had rolled her eyes.</p><p>“I see. Alicia? In what manner were you disrespectful?”, Miss Greyling had frowned at Alicia; she had not liked the attitude she had walked in with. She had walked in whistling, rolling her eyes every two seconds, and overall acting non-carish about the whole thing, even though Miss Greyling had been sure she did care a great deal.</p><p>Alicia had shuffled her feel uncomfortably, looking at her fingernails, acting uninterested in the whole affair.</p><p>“I called her a name, Miss Greyling." </p><p>“I see. What name was this?” she had pressed.</p><p>There had been a short silence. </p><p>"I don’t feel comfortable saying it to you, Miss Greyling,” she had replied at last, concealing a smirk. She hadn’t been able to help it; imagining saying the word ‘bitch’ to the old, dignified mistress had tickled her. It had been a ghost of a smirk, and it had only appeared for a second; But Miss Greyling's sharp eyes had just managed to catch it, and that had been the last straw for her.</p><p>“Well, seeing as you obviously don’t care all that much about being banned from hockey, and you are <em>still</em> being disrespectful towards your head girl, I have to side with Moira. I grant you the authorization to ban her,” she had nodded towards Moira. “You are all dismissed.”</p><p>Darrell had gasped in dismay, while Alicia had looked as though she had been slapped. <em>“I do care,”</em> she had wanted to say. But she couldn’t; not with Moira there. She wouldn’t give her that satisfaction. So she had clamped her lips shut and stuck her chin out defiantly.</p><p>“Yes, Miss Greyling,” she had replied instead, and walked out of the room, followed by Moira.</p><p>“Miss Greyling, please – “Darrell had begun to plead, but the mistress shook her head.</p><p>"Darrell, my mind has been made up. Alicia must learn to take accountability for her actions, and you must learn to stop fighting her fights for her because she just can’t care enough to do so herself.”</p><p>She had then waved her hand, making her dismissal clear.</p><p>Darrell had rushed after Moira, practically in tears of anger.</p><p>“Oh, Moira, please! You know she’s one of the best we’ve got on the team!” she had cried after her.</p><p>Moira had turned around to face Darrell, and had snorted, rolling her eyes.</p><p>“She is <em>not</em>. She’s lazy, she’s unreliable, she’s goofy. She spends more time being stupid and fooling around than anything else.”</p><p>“While that might be true, she still gets more goals in being the way she is than, say, Sally, when she plays with all her effort - don’t tell her I said that,” she had added, hurriedly.</p><p>“Yes, but she makes the others laugh; and while that doesn’t affect her playing, it affects the others. Especially Betty and Irene. Betty starts to follow lead, and Irene doubles up laughing so hard she becomes utterly useless.”</p><p>Moira had then frowned down at Darrell.</p><p>“Why are <em>you</em> talking to me, anyway, instead of Alicia? This is a perfect example of her laziness. She can’t even be bothered to come and talk to me herself, either before or now. Did she send you to come after me?”</p><p> No…of course she didn’t. I came myself,” Darrell had replied, taken aback.</p><p>“Of course she didn’t. She can’t be bothered to come after me and talk for herself, and she can’t even be bothered to <em>send someone else</em> to talk for her. She couldn’t be bothered to talk to me before, either. I bet you even had to drag her to go to speak to Miss Greyling.”</p><p>Darrell had hesitated. It was true; when Darrell gone down to the grounds and told Alicia to come with her to talk to the headmistress, she had shrugged in her usual defensive, I-don’t-really-care way, and had made her usual yawning and stretching lazy display to get up from under the tree she had been sitting at, while Darrell had waited patiently until she had eventually yanked her up herself, and yes – practically dragged her along.</p><p>“Look at her,” Moira had nodded towards Alicia, who rushed towards Betty, and was now laughing with her. “She couldn’t care less. Why do you?”</p><p>"That’s not true!” Darrell had replied, hotly. “She does care, it’s just…her damn pride!”</p><p>“Her laziness, more like. Her just can’t be bothered, Darrell. She can’t be bothered to care about the game, or about you, or about anything. Can’t you see that?” Moira had snapped.</p><p>Darrell had flinched, and Moira had instantly regretted her sharp tone, and sighed. After all, it wasn’t Darrell she had a problem with; she actually liked the girl, since she was one of the few at school she got on fairly well with. They shared a love of sports and games, and usually saw eye-to-eye on who should be in a team and who shouldn’t – except for now, of course. So she had spoken again, in a softer tone that time – softer for Moira’s standards, anyway.</p><p>“Look - you must see she doesn’t care about you the way you obviously care about her. Would <em>she</em> go through all this trouble for <em>you</em>?”</p><p> Darrell’s face had flushed at this statement, anger and confusion filling her expression.</p><p>“It’s not for her, it’s for the team,” she had replied after a moment’s silence. Moira sighed.</p><p>“All right. If it is for the team, then trust me, the team is better off without her.”</p><p>“No, it’s not,” Darrell had replied, her voice low. She then pushed past Moira angrily, which slightly made up for the urge she felt to shake and slap the head girl – and Alicia. </p><p>However, Alicia seemed not to be affected at all by any of it; she had decided that Moira had done the worst thing she possibly could to her, so that gave her a free pass to be as disrespectful and obnoxious as she wanted to be to the head girl; which involved calling her a bitch every chance she got. Moira, knowing she had nothing worse to punish her with, had no choice but to ignore her.</p><p>“It’s almost worth being banned if I get to call her a bitch whenever I want to,” she now muttered to Irene, who giggled. Darrell heard and felt anger rise up in her again, but took a deep breath. Now wasn’t the time for squabbles. </p><p>“Whoever did this has until the end of tomorrow to come forward to me. If nobody does, I’ll report this incident to Miss Greyling,” finished Moira.</p><p>“I’d rather you didn’t,” protested Zerelda, looking embarrassed.</p><p>“Honestly, Zerelda, no one’s going to blame you for wearing a bit of lipstick,” said Daphne, rolling her eyes at the very idea. “Even if you were wearing <em>black</em> lipstick, it doesn’t give anyone the right to hurt you.”</p><p> Everyone nodded in agreement.</p><p>"Ok, then,” replied Zerelda slowly, “I guess that’s fair.”</p><p>“I suppose when you’re as pretty as Zerelda is, you can’t help being a bit vain,” sighed Catherine. “Honestly, it quite gives me the creeps that someone so mean is among us.”</p><p>“Oh, there’s plenty mean people among us, Catherine. Like your dear Moira, for instance,” replied Alicia sweetly.</p><p>"Stop it!” hissed Sally from behind her, seeing Darrell getting visibly irate. “Alicia, can I talk to you outside for a second?”</p><p>Alicia nodded nonchalantly and followed Sally out.</p><p>“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Alicia asked once they were outside the common room, her tone strongly indicating boredom. She leaned against the wall and studied her fingernails.</p><p>“Stop that, Alicia.”</p><p>“Stop what?” she replied, bemused. "Looking at my nails? Are you going to accuse me of vanity, or something, and put a needle in my cuticles?" </p><p>Cracking a joke might have worked with Darrell, but it didn't with Sally, who merely gave her a tired look.</p><p>“You know what. Acting like that, making it worse. You’re pissing Moira off - which, granted, is what you want - but in doing so you’re also pissing Darrell off. You’re hurting her, can’t you see?” snapped Sally.</p><p>Alicia stared in surprise at the usually mild-mannered Sally.</p><p>“How am I hurting Darrell?” she squinted.</p><p>“Because she cares about you, and you just –"</p><p>Alicia held up a hand, interrupting her mid-sentence.</p><p>“Hold on. Darrell’s pissed off - because she cares about me? Are you sure it’s not <em>you</em> who’s pissed off that Darrell cares about me?” she shot back, smooth as ever.</p><p>“I – no – you didn’t let me finish,” stuttered Sally, flustered.</p><p>“Didn’t have to,” smirked Alicia. “You must control that jealousy, old thing. Darrell isn’t your property, you know. Don't be so envious.”</p><p>“I'm not -” Sally began, but Alicia held up her hand again. </p><p>“Good talk,” Alicia cut across her, patting her on the shoulder and winking before walking back into the common room, whistling a Frank Sinatra song.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm trying to be realistic and not make all the characters gay, but dammit, it's hard, lol! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Lust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The girls gathered in the common room the next evening, wondering if anyone had come clean to Moira about being the awful prank that had been played on Zerelda. They looked at the head girl expectantly, then groaned in dismay when she shook her head. Not only had this horrid person done such an awful thing, she didn’t even have the decency to own up! </p><p>“Nobody owned up, I’m afraid. That’s that. I will report it to Miss Greyling right away,” reported Moira firmly.</p><p>“I’ll come with you”, said Catherine, always ready to be the right hand man at anyone’s disposal.</p><p>Suddenly, Bill came rushing into the common room, pale faced.</p><p>“Moira? Can I have a word with you?”</p><p>The girls stared at her, astonished; she looked absolutely panic-stricken, and her voice trembled when she spoke. Moira frowned.</p><p>“Can’t it wait? I’m going to report yesterday’s happenings to Miss Greyling.”</p><p>“No. Please.”</p><p>She ran her hands through her hair, a gesture of despair. Moira was slightly taken aback; she had never seen the sensible Bill so worked up about anything.</p><p>“All right then. Let’s go outside.”</p><p>The girls heard them talk in hushed tones in the hallway; then, they walked away! They stared at each other. Whatever could be going on?</p><p>After a few minutes, Moira returned, Bill looking sheepish and scared behind her.</p><p>“Change of plans. We’re not reporting,” announced Moira briskly.</p><p>“What?!”, exclaimed the girls.</p><p>“It’s my decision and it’s final; at least for now, we’re not reporting anything to Miss Greyling,” she repeated.</p><p>“Why not?” asked Catherine, looking at Moira with disapproval. Really, how could she not report something like this?</p><p>“Stop questioning me,” snapped Moira. Catherine pursed her lips and renewed her darning.</p><p>“Not only are you a narcissist, but also bipolar? Freud would be amazed,” said Alicia. Moira gave her a withering look. </p><p>Little did Alicia know why Moira was acting like this…</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Ten minutes earlier</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>“Look, I’m going to tell you something, and you have to promise me you won’t freak out – no matter how much you might disapprove,” began Bill.</p><p>Moira rolled her eyes.</p><p>“If I freaked out every time I disapproved of something, I’d have grey hairs,” she replied. Bill stared at her and Moira rolled her eyes again. “Yes; sometimes I make jokes. What is it, Bill?”</p><p>Bill shook her head and sighed.</p><p>“This is my only hope. Oh, god, you’re going to go nuts.”</p><p>Moira made an exasperated groaning sound.</p><p>“Bill…”</p><p>“All right, all right, I’ll tell you.”</p><p>She glanced at the door suspiciously and hesitated.</p><p>“Not here, let’s go somewhere private.”</p><p>“Bill, what can possibly be so – oh, all right. Come on,” replied Moira impatiently.</p><p>They walked into an empty room, and Bill closed the door.</p><p>“Look, I got this note…threatening to tell the whole school something personal about me. And it can’t get out. It says the only way they won’t tell is if we don’t report to the head," she explained desperately. Moira stared incredulously.</p><p>“What can this person have on you that’s so bad?” she asked, crossing her arms.</p><p>“Not just on me – I wouldn’t care as much if it was only on me. But on Clarissa too…” her voice broke slightly and she took a deep breath. “We could be expelled. We could be – cast out of home. It could ruin us.”</p><p>Moira was silent for a moment, realization dawning on her face.</p><p>“Oh,” she replied. There was a moments silence before she spoke again. “Bill…I’m sure a lot of people have already guessed.”</p><p>“Yes, but – what about girls like Gwen? Or Maureen? They’ll want us expelled immediately. And parents won’t want us here. And Clar – I can’t have her going through that,” she gulped, brushing away angry tears.</p><p>“Can I see the note?” asked Moira quietly. Bill nodded, handing over a crumpled up sheet of paper.</p><p>
  <em>Let the prideful dictator report to the head, and I’ll expose you and your bitch for your lustful, deviant ways to the whole school. LUST is a sin, and THE PUNISHER has proof you’re guilty of it, you filthy dykes.</em>
</p><p>“Lovely”, commented Moira dryly. “What tosh. Proof? How can she possibly have proof?,” she muttered.</p><p>“I don’t know, but I don’t want to risk it,” sighed Bill. “Please, Moira. Clarissa…”</p><p>“All right, all right. Don’t worry. I won’t report it”, she replied, rolling her eyes at Bill’s display of sentimentalism. Moira had a tendency to act as though any show of emotion was a highly disturbing thing that had to be quenched at all costs.</p><p>“That’s jolly decent of you, Moira. I thought you wouldn’t approve. I actually thought you might report Clarissa and I along with this”, she sighed, relieved.</p><p>Moira snorted.</p><p>“Well, that would be awfully hypocritical of me, wouldn’t it?” she remarked, raising an eyebrow.</p><p>Bill stared at the other girl in shock.</p><p>“You mean…you…”</p><p>“Yes, Bill, I’m a <em>filthy dyke</em>, as this note so eloquently put it, too”, replied the head girl, a tinge of amusement in her dry tone.</p><p>“Oh”, grinned Bill. “I should have guessed, I suppose.” She then broke into her signature wide, goofy grin and gave the other girl a tentative, teasing nudge in the ribs. “Are you fooling around with anyone, then?” she asked.</p><p>Moira stared.</p><p>Bill’s grin faltered; she cleared her throat.</p><p>“I’ll…take that as a no,” she muttered.</p><p>“Lets go back to the common room. I’ll tell the girls I changed my mind.”</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>
    <em>The next day</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Clarissa hummed to herself quietly, stroking Midnight’s dark brown mane. She had come down to the stables for a bit of peace and quiet, escaping the girl’s constant questioning about why Bill had gone rushing to Moira last night, looking so frightened. She was tired of repeating again and again that she <em>didn’t know</em>. She truly didn’t know; Bill was being so secretive about the whole thing, and Clarissa was quite annoyed with her. They never kept secrets from each other.</p><p>She felt a pair of strong, tanned arms wrap around her waist and she sighed.</p><p>“I’m not in the mood,” she snapped, resuming her brushing.</p><p>Bill chuckled softly behind her.</p><p>“Come on, don’t get all grumpy,” she murmured, planting a kiss on her neck.</p><p>“Well, how am I supposed to feel? You won’t tell me what all that with Moira was last night. All I know is you talked to her and then she suddenly changed her mind about reporting to the head. Which implies you somehow changed her mind; although how you managed to change that girl’s stubborn mind is beyond me…”</p><p>Bill sighed.</p><p>“It was nothing, Clar. I just asked her not to do it.”</p><p>“But <em>why</em>?”, pressed Clarissa, turning around to face her. “Why wouldn’t you want this awful incident to be reported?”</p><p>“Because…” Bill sighed again, running her hand through her short hair. She bit her lip, shaking her head. “Look, it’s nothing you have to worry about. I’ve taken care of it.”</p><p>“Bill, I’m not stupid, and I’m not weak. I can worry about something once in a while.”</p><p>“All right…I’ll show you. But promise me you won’t freak out. Your heart…”</p><p>“Oh, Bill, my heart’s fine now, you know it is!”, cried Clarissa, throwing her hands up in exasperation.</p><p>“All right, all right. I got this nasty note…” she hesitantly handed the piece of paper to Clarissa.</p><p>Clarissa was silent for a few moments, her brow furrowed. She let out a low whistle, clearly disturbed.</p><p>“Oh, Bill. How could you think of <em>not</em> telling me? This is a threat to both of us.”</p><p>“I don’t want you to get hurt,” sighed Bill.</p><p>“Darling, you were going to carry this weight on your own? You have to tell me these things. I’m not made out of glass, I can deal with things. Do you think I’m not strong enough, or something?” asked Clarissa, her voice softening.</p><p>Bill shook her head.</p><p>“You are strong, I know that,” she murmured. “I just worry. You haven’t had the experiences I’ve had. People don’t look at you and think – well – dyke.” She gulped, her face twisting in disgust at the word. “And if people find out you’re with me in that way – well, they’ll look at you the same way they look at me. And you’re not used to that – “</p><p>Clarissa shook her head and put a finger to the other girl’s lips.</p><p>“Bill, I can’t pretend to know what that’s like the way you do; you’re right. But I’d go through hell and back for you, dear; you must know that. Dirty stares and name-calling aren’t going to scare me away, and as long as I have you, they won’t break me,” she said firmly, taking Bill’s tanned, freckled hands in her own.</p><p>“I do love you so,” Bill sighed, her voice cracking.</p><p>“I love you too,” smiled Clarissa, pressing her lips to the other girl’s.</p><p>They stayed that way for a while, embraced, lips moving slowly against each other, when Clarissa felt something hard inside Bill’s coat.</p><p>“What’s this?” she murmured, breaking away and pointing at the coat.</p><p>“Oh,” Bill grinned, feeling inside her coat and taking out a bottle of red wine. “I brought this along to make up.”</p><p>“Bill!” exclaimed Clarissa, giggling. “Where on earth did you get that?”</p><p>“My brother sent it to me,” grinned Bill.</p><p>“Let me guess; Stanley?” laughed the read-head, her green eyes gleaming. Stanley was one of Bill’s many older brothers, and an absolute devil. He had been a very naughty child, and had now grown up to be a very naughty seventeen-year-old.</p><p>“Yup,” said Bill, her grin wide and goofy. “I got it today with a little note saying ‘I think you and Clar could use some fun inside that prissy, posh place!’</p><p>Clarissa laughed, rolling her eyes.</p><p>“Do you think he knows about us?” she wondered, planting a kiss on her girlfriend’s mouth.</p><p>“I think he guesses…” began Bill thoughtfully. “He always asks me about you.”</p><p>She popped the bottle open and grinned.</p><p>“Come on then; take a swig.”</p><p>“Oh, Bill, we could get into such trouble!” laughed Clarissa.</p><p>“We’ll just drink a little bit; there’s still two hours before teatime, anyway,” replied Bill, and took a sip. “It’s great!”</p><p>Clarissa laughed, took the bottle, and took a tentative sip. Her eyes widened with approval.</p><p>“It <em>is</em> great!”</p><p>They rushed giggling to their usual private spot behind the stables and lay down on the grass, taking turns to drink from the bottle.</p><p>“I think that’s enough”, laughed Bill, putting the bottle back inside her coat. “We don’t want to be absolutely drunk when we go down to tea! Can you imagine Potty’s face? Or Miss Parker’s?”</p><p>“Or Mary-Lou’s, or Catherine’s?” added Clarissa, doubling up with laughter.</p><p>Bill grabbed the laughing girl’s face and kissed her passionately. Clarissa giggled and let out a soft moan as Bill began making her way up her skirt; then pulled her hand away.</p><p>“It’s your turn, love”, she whispered, unbuckling the tomboy’s belt. Bill bit her lip and laid back, looking up at the now orange and yellow colored sky above, shuddering as she felt Clarissa touching her in slow, circular motions. She closed her eyes.</p><p>“Is that nice?” murmured Clarissa.</p><p>There was no response. The red-head frowned and stopped moving her hand.</p><p>“Bill?”</p><p>She looked at the tomboy’s face incredulously. She was asleep! <em>Well</em>! Thought Clarissa indignantly.</p><p>“Bill!” she snapped, her voice filled with indignation and a slight tinge of amusement.</p><p>But the tomboy was completely fast asleep. Suddenly, despite her annoyance, Clarissa yawned. How queer! She suddenly felt like she just wanted to lie down and sleep forever. She laid her head on the other girl’s chest and closed her eyes. <em>Just a few minutes</em>, she thought, and drifted off into unconsciousness, her hand still down Bill’s riding breeches.</p>
<hr/><p>Bill woke up with a start.</p><p>What time is it?! She thought, panicking slightly at the sight of the darkness around her. Why, it was surely teatime already! Maybe even bedtime!</p><p>She tried to lift her arm to shake Clarissa awake…but saw, to her dismay, she couldn’t! For she and Clarissa were bounded tightly together by a thick, scratchy rope.</p><p>“Clar! Clarissa! Wake up!” she hissed.</p><p>The redhead yawned.</p><p>“Five more minutes…” she mumbled. She tried to stretch – to no avail. She opened her eyes and gave a shocked cry.</p><p>“What – what is this?! What happened?!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.</p><p>“I don’t know,” replied Bill, her voice shaking with fear. “What happened? How did we fall asleep?”</p><p>“I was – oh, Bill, my arm!” she cried. Bill lifted her head, craning her neck to look down and gasped. Clarissa’s hand was where she had left it – down her trousers – but her sleeve had been ripped off and written across her bare arm were two black, large words: <em>LUSTFUL DYKE</em>.</p><p>“Can you try to free your arm somehow?” asked Bill, her voice desperate.</p><p>Clarissa tried to force her arm out of the rope a few different ways, but there was no use; they were too tightly tied.</p><p>“I don’t understand how on earth we slept through this!” cried Clarissa.</p><p>“I don’t, either. We’re going to have to wait ‘til someone find us. Oh, lord. I just hope it’s someone like Moira. If it’s Gwendoline Mary or Catherine, or worse, one of the mistresses, we’re done,” groaned Bill.</p><p>It <em>was</em> one of the mistresses who found them, five minutes later...</p>
<hr/><p>Bill and Clarissa were not the only ones who had almost slept through dinner. Miss Linnie woke up with a start and shook Miss Peters awake.</p><p>“Jane! It’s almost teatime!” she exclaimed.</p><p>The mistress sat up quickly and rubbed her eyes. She looked at the clock and sighed with relief; they still had fifteen minutes. She smiled sheepishly.</p><p>“We forgot to set the alarm clock,” she laughed. “Lucky thing you woke up in time!”</p><p>Miss Linnie laughed and gave her a quick kiss before jumping up from the bed and putting her dress back on. It was a usual habit for them; a few days a week, right before teatime, Miss Linnie would sneak in to the other mistresses’ room. Today was Saturday, which meant they had extra free time in the afternoon, so they had gone down to the stables earlier and then sneaked into the room for some private time.</p><p>“We have to be more careful,” sighed Miss Linnie.  “The other mistresses must be wondering why we’ve been gone for so long.”</p><p>“Eliza, we’ll just say we went to town for a coffee,” yawned Miss Peters, getting into her clothes. “Coffee between two female friends is allowed, isn’t it?”</p><p>“I guess so,” smiled the other woman. She suddenly frowned.</p><p>“Where’s my hat? I had it on this afternoon.”</p><p>Miss Peters groaned.</p><p>“Don’t tell me you left it at the stables again,” she laughed.</p><p>“I think I must have,” replied Miss Linnie sheepishly.</p><p>Miss Peters rolled her eyes in mock exasperation.</p><p>“I’ll run and get it for you.”</p><p>“Don’t be silly, I can go,” smiled Miss Linnie.</p><p>“I said, I can get it,” insisted Miss Peters, leaning down for another kiss.</p><p>“You love being the gentlewoman, don’t you,” murmured the art mistress, kissing her back.</p><p>“I do,” grinned Miss Peters, pulling away and giving her a quick smack on the behind before heading towards the door.</p><p>“Don’t be long; you know how Miss Potts gets if someone’s not on time,” she called out.</p><p>Miss Peters gave a ‘yes ma’am’ salute with her hand and rushed off to the stables, whistling happily. She was in such a great mood lately, and it was all because of that gorgeous art mistress. She felt like the luckiest woman in the world; not only did she get to do what she liked best at this school – teaching and riding – she got to work in the same place as the woman she loved. True, they did have to do a whole lot of sneaking around and take more precautions than would be ideal – but that was the price they had to pay for being themselves in this world, unfortunately.</p><p>She walked out into the grounds with her flashlight; the air was cool but not too cold, ideal for a midnight ride. Maybe she would take her horse out later for a short while…</p><p>She walked into the stables and, sure enough, there was Eliza’s hat, lying on a small pile of hay. She must have dropped it during one of their many kisses. She grinned fondly, picking it up and brushing the hay off. She was about to walk back out when she heard a noise. She stopped and perked her sharp ears up. She realized there were two voices – girl’s voices, she realized, coming from behind the stables - and frowned. What on earth were the girls up to, being out here minutes before dinner? As she walked outside and began making her way towards the back, walking faster as she realized they sounded as though they were in some sort of trouble. She then recognized Bill’s voice, desperate and clear as day:</p><p>“Oh, god, Clar, how are we going to get out of this?”</p><p>“Bill? Clarissa? What on earth are you doing?”</p><p>The girls let out a yelp of fear at the unexpected voice. Miss Peters flashed her flashlight on the girls – and let out a loud gasp.</p><p>“What on earth?!” she demanded. She leaned down and began to tackle the rope that was binding them together when she caught sight of the redhead’s hand down the other girl’s breeches. She averted her eyes quickly, flushing.</p><p>“Jesus Christ,” she muttered. “What were you girls thinking? How on earth did you manage to get yourselves tied up like this?”</p><p>She stared firmly at their faces as she untied the knots, averting her eyes as much as possible from where Clarissa’s hand was. She sighed sympathetically at their mortified looks, and decided to try not to be too harsh on them. But really, the carelessness of it all!</p><p>“We…fell asleep,” Bill finally replied, looking glum and embarrassed.</p><p>“And we woke up tied up like this; we don’t know how we possibly could have slept through it,” added Clarissa, her voice thin and meek and her face almost as red as her hair.</p><p>Miss Peters was silent as she worked on the knots; finally, they managed to wriggle themselves free.</p><p>“Do you realize what could have happened if someone else had found you like this?” said Miss Peters, her voice low. “Being expelled would be the least of your problems. You might never get into another school. Or even a job. You could be thrown out of your home and into the streets.”</p><p>“I know, Miss Peters. Believe me, I know,” replied Bill glumly.</p><p>“You won’t tell anyone, will you, Miss Peters?” asked Clarissa tentatively, her green eyes wide.</p><p>Miss Peters sighed, and frowned as she saw the words inked on Clarissa’s arm.</p><p>“No, of course not. Although I should definitely report you for that wine bottle,” she replied dryly, nodding towards the bottle leaning against the wall. “Where on earth did you get that?”</p><p>“My brother sent it to me,” replied Bill.</p><p>“Are you sure it was your brother?”</p><p>“Well – the note was written on a typewriter. So I suppose it could have been someone else. Say, you don’t think it might have had something in it – to make us sleep?” she suddenly asked, taken aback at the very thought of someone drugging them.</p><p>“That’s exactly what I think,” replied Miss Peters. “Do you have any idea who could have done this?”</p><p>The girls shook their heads.</p><p>“Is there anybody who knows about you two?” she pressed.</p><p>“Well…only Moira Linton. And I think Alicia might know, but I’m not sure.”</p><p>Miss Peters raised her eyebrows.</p><p>“Oh, that Alicia Johns is sharp as anything, she definitely at least must suspect. Moira definitely knows?”</p><p>“Yes…but it wasn’t her. I’m sure it wasn’t.”</p><p>Miss Peters sighed.</p><p>“Well, get up; we’re late for tea as it is, and the mistresses won’t be amused. Nor will the cook!” she said, standing and pulling the girls up to their feet. Bill grabbed her jacket and put it on Clarissa, covering up the ripped sleeve, and they made their way back inside the school.</p><p>The girls stared at Bill and Clarissa as they sat down at the table. Not because they were late; they were used to Irene forgetting to come down to tea, or Zerelda skipping meals because she thought she had a bit of a tummy. They stared because they looked as though they had been through some sort of world war.</p><p>“You look like shit,” remarked Alicia, always the tactful one.</p><p>“Thanks” replied Bill dryly.</p><p>“What happened? Why did you come in with Miss Peters like that? She looked awfully grim. Did you get into trouble?” asked Darrell.</p><p>“No…it’s complicated,” replied Bill. She looked at the expectant faces and sighed.</p><p>“We were in the stables, and we drank a bit of wine my brother sent me – or I thought it was my brother. It had some sort of sleeping drug in it, we think, because next thing we know we were asleep and tied up with rope.”</p><p>The girls gasped. Another beastly trick!</p><p>“Gee, do you think it could have been the same person who put the needle in my lipstick?” asked Zerelda.</p><p>“I don’t know…I don’t think so. There wasn’t anything referring to sin this time,” lied Clarissa.</p><p>“Nothing about your lust for horses, then?” asked Alicia, trying to lighten the mood. That was a mistake, for Bill turned around, a look of disgust on her face.</p><p>“Jesus. It was <em>you</em>?”</p><p>“What?” asked Alicia, taken aback. “No, of course not. I was joking, idiot.”</p><p>Alicia went quiet after that, realizing she had struck a nerve she shouldn’t have. Usually she enjoyed striking nerves, but even she seemed to realize this was a line that shouldn’t be crossed.</p><p>She went up to her after tea, a worried frown on her face.</p><p>“Say, Bill, you don’t honestly think I would do that, do you?” she asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Bill shrugged it off.</p><p>“I don’t know, Alicia. It all seems awfully coincidental,” she snapped.</p><p>“Was it really something to do about <em>lust for horses</em>?” she asked, incredulously. “Whoever this is, took my words really literally, I mean, gosh – “</p><p>“I’m not in the mood to discuss this with you,” sighed Bill, pushing past Alicia.</p><p>“Bill, wait!” protested Alicia. She hurried after the tomboy. “Was it – Bill, was it lust in the sense of – you and Clarissa?” she continued, in a hushed tone.</p><p>Bill swiveled around.</p><p>“So it <em>was</em> you. Look, I won’t say anything, I won’t report you. But just leave Clar and I alone. If you have any decency, you’ll stop all this now,” hissed Bill, her voice filled with fear and anger.</p><p>She turned around and hurried off, leaving a shocked Alicia gaping at her, eyes wide with dismay.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you enjoyed this chapter!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Envy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a hot day at Malory Towers. The sun was high above the clear blue sky, and Darrell and Sally were laying under an oak tree, enjoying the cool shade and catching their breath after an especially exhausting and atrocious hockey practice.</p><p>“We have to play against Rennington in a month!” groaned Darrell. “We seem to have gone backwards instead of improving.”</p><p>Sally sighed and nodded in agreement.</p><p>“I’m afraid Mary-Lou isn’t a great replacement.”</p><p>Darrell had gone around asking – begging, really – for a replacement for Alicia. She thought it would be easy, and that girls would be lining up to take the girl’s place; after all, who would turn down such an honor as to play for the school?</p><p>However, to her astonishment, it wasn’t that easy; the girls that weren’t in the team were either too occupied with other hobbies, were wary at the thought of joining with so little time to train before the big game, or had no interest in playing hockey whatsoever. Laura, a south tower girl, had said she didn’t have the time for such demanding training in such short time. Mavis had said she was much too busy with voice training. Daphne had burst into hysterical laughter at the very idea of herself playing hockey; and Catherine had smiled and said that while she appreciated Darrell considering her, she was no good at all at games.</p><p>Mary-Lou was the only one who had accepted. Very reluctantly.</p><p>She had, at first, said 'no', and laughed nervously along with Daphne, who had burst into peals of laughter a second time at the thought of little Mary-Lou playing hockey with some of those big, strong hearty girls.</p><p>“She’ll get trampled to death!” Daphne had exclaimed, staring at Darrell as though she had gone insane.</p><p>“I’ll coach you,” Darrell had said. “I’ve seen you play, you’re actually not bad; you’re just scared of the ball.”</p><p>“Exactly,” Mary-Lou had replied, her eyes wide. “I’m terrified. I always duck when the ball comes my way; I can’t help it.”</p><p>“I can help you get over that,” Darrell had insisted.</p><p>“Lord, you must be desperate if you want one of <em>us</em> to join,” Daphne had laughed.</p><p>Darrell had sighed and shaken her head.</p><p>“You’re right, of course. Forget I said anything,” she had replied, a look of intense disappointment on her face.</p><p>Mary-Lou had bit her lip; she so hated disappointing Darrell. She had never truly gotten over her admiration for the girl, or the nagging need to try and impress her constantly. Suddenly, she had found herself calling after her, and Darrell had turned around in slight surprise, but, at the same time - Daphne noticed - a hint of victory, as if she had, deep down, known Mary-Lou would eventually give in.</p><p>“I’ll do it,” Mary-Lou had said, looking taken aback at her own words. Daphne had stared incredulously at her, mouth agape.</p><p>“Oh, Mary-Lou, you’re a lifesaver!” Darrell had exclaimed, her face breaking into a huge, relieved grin. She had hugged her then, and Mary-Lou’s face had turned red for reasons she didn’t quite know.</p><p>“Mary-Lou, have you gone mad?” Daphne had exclaimed, laughing, right after Darrell had run off happily.</p><p>“She just…she looked so disappointed,” Mary-Lou had replied feebly.</p><p>Daphne had rolled her eyes, a small, rather knowing smile playing on her lips.</p><p>However, Daphne <em>had</em> had a point in calling her crazy, for Mary-Lou <em>was</em> rather useless when it came to hockey, or any sport in general. </p><p>“She’d probably turn out to be rather good if she had more than two months to train, but unfortunately she’s just not a natural,” sighed Darrell.</p><p>“No. Well, I told her not to worry too much and try to do the best she can; we can’t expect much of her, after all,” said Sally. She then frowned. “You mustn’t overwork her, Darrell; she was exhausted after the extra training you gave her yesterday. I suppose you’re not going to give her extra coaching today too.”</p><p>Darrell was silent.</p><p>“Darrell!” exclaimed Sally, disapprovingly.</p><p>“Well…I had thought maybe just half an hour. She agreed!” she protested mildly.</p><p>“Yes, as she would agree to anything you say. She looks up to you, Darrell, it’s why she even agreed to do this in the first place. We’re all exhausted after the practice we’ve had just now; call it off for today,” insisted Sally.</p><p>Darrell smiled and nodded, giving in.</p><p>“You’re right, as usual, old thing. I’m lucky to have you; you always make me see sense when I can’t see it for myself.”</p><p>Sally smiled back.</p><p>“Sensible Sally, that’s me,” she murmured.</p><p>Darrell saw Alicia coming towards them in the distance and sighed.</p><p>“Speaking of un-sensible…” she nodded towards the grinning girl and gave a half-hearted grin back, waving.</p><p>Sally sighed and got up.</p><p>“Where are you going?” protested Darrell.</p><p>“I don’t have the mood for Alicia and her – Alicia-ness right now, I’m exhausted,” she replied, giving a dry laugh. “You stay. I’ll go and read inside for a bit.”</p><p>“All right – if you’re sure,” replied Darrell, hesitantly. Should she get up and go with her? But she had said she was going to read, and she didn’t really feel like reading…</p><p>Sally nodded.</p><p>“Yes, I have a lot of reading to catch up with,” she insisted, and walked away before Alicia could reach her.</p><p>She felt rather glum as she walked away, wishing Darrell had come along – but she was being selfish, of course. After all, she had told Darrell she was going to read on her own. Still, she couldn’t help the jealousy that rose in her chest whenever Darrell looked at Alicia with that admiration and fondness. She looked at Sally in a sort of admiration too, but it was different; she was fond of Alicia for her fun personality, while she was fond of Sally for her – sensibility. <em>For my boring personality, basically</em>, she thought glumly. <em>You always steady me, old thing, </em>she would say warmly. But Sally knew, deep down, Darrell was the kind of person who craved fun and laughs, and steadiness could be good – but it wasn’t fun.</p><p>Alicia grinned as she sat down next to Darrell.</p><p>“You look hot,” she remarked, raising her eyebrows at the sweat glistening on the other girl’s strands of hair. Darrell gave her a withering look.</p><p>“You’d be hot too, if you had been playing your ass off,” she replied. “You never quite did that, though.”</p><p>It was exasperatingly true; as in most things, Alicia never had to really put in any effort to play well. She would kind of glide across the field, without sweating a drop, and manage to score more times than any of the other red-faced, panting girls.</p><p>“How was practice?” she yawned, leaning back against the tree trunk.</p><p>“Awful,” groaned Darrell.</p><p>“I heard you replaced me with Mary-Lou,” snorted Alicia. “Moira <em>must</em> be regretting kicking me out.”</p><p>“If she is, she isn’t showing it,” sighed Darrell. “Alicia -“ she began.</p><p>“Nope,” replied Alicia cheerfully, knowing exactly what the other girl was going to say.</p><p>“Can’t you just –“</p><p>“Afraid not, old thing.”</p><p>“Oh, I hate you!” snapped Darrell.</p><p>“No, you don’t,” replied Alicia, grinning knowingly.</p><p>There was a short silence.</p><p>“No, I don’t,” agreed Darrell, sighing.</p><p>“I think Sally does, though,” the wicked Alicia remarked. “She left as quickly as my dad leaves to go to the pub when my mother’s on one of her nagging moods.”</p><p>Darrell rolled her eyes and the corner of her lips twitched. Honestly, Alicia just loved to stir any pot she found.</p><p>“She doesn’t. She’s just angry about the game, and you not even putting the effort in to apologize. That’s all,” she replied, rather testily.</p><p>“Is Mary-Lou any good at all?” she asked, averting the subject.</p><p>“She tries,” replied Darrell. “But she’s no match to you.”</p><p>Something about that phrase sounded strange, like there was some sort of underlying meaning, like they were talking about more than just the game; it created a tense sort of silence, filled with something they couldn’t name.</p><p>“Is Sally a match?” Alicia asked, cursing her wicked tongue as soon as the words had left her mouth; she always knew when she was about to go too far and then she did. It was like the devil controlled her words sometimes. She regretted it greatly when she saw the hurt look in Darrell’s eyes.</p><p>“That’s not fair, Alicia,” she replied, her voice heavy.</p><p>“I know. I’m sorry,” said Alicia quickly, and forced a laugh, trying to lighten the mood. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Really. Oh, Darrell, don’t…” she whispered, her non-carish ways faltering as she saw the other girl’s eyes fill up with tears. Had it been Gwendoline or Maureen, she would have scorned them; but Darrell never ever cried.</p><p>“Gosh, I don’t know what came over me – probably exhaustion,” said Darrell briskly, shaking her head and forcing a laugh herself, blinking back the tears. “Anyway…wasn’t that hard to say sorry, was it? Now go do the same with Moira,” she insisted, attempting a teasing, light tone.</p><p>“Darrell…I can’t…”</p><p>“I know, I know. You proud thing. Never mind,” she replied, trying to keep her tone cheery. She stood up and her smile faltered.</p><p>“I just…after all the trouble I always go for you, I would have thought you could do this small thing for me. But it doesn’t matter.”</p><p>Alicia opened her mouth to speak, but Darrell shook her head.</p><p>“Forget it. It’s all good,” she smiled tightly, and walked away.</p><p>Alicia sighed and leaned back against the tree, frowning. Why did she have to go and say something like that? It <em>wasn’t</em> fair, and she knew it. She knew it wasn’t that Darrell liked her more than Sally, or anything like that…but she obviously did admire her, or have deeper feelings, and she used that to her advantage. She knew that, and she could kick herself for doing it every time, but she couldn’t seem to help reveling in that blatant admiration for some reason; she couldn’t seem to help pushing those feelings to the limit. <em>I won’t do it anymore</em>, she decided then and there. Someday, she would push Darrell too far, and she didn’t want to do that. She would never hurt Darrell, not intentionally. Or Sally, for that matter. She liked them both a great deal, despite her nonchalant attitude, and wouldn’t like to lose their friendship over that cursed tongue of hers.</p><p>She reached into her pocket for a sweet, and felt something like a folded up piece of paper inside it. She took it out and looked without much interest; it was probably some notes she had forgotten all about. She opened it up – and suddenly sat up straight, frowning. What was this handwriting? She read it through and gasped, her blood running cold.</p><p> “<em>You can’t be bothered about anything, can you? Time to cure that SLOTH with some hard labor for once. I know how you didn’t do anything – as usual – when your brother did what he did. I have proof. If you don’t want it getting out and ruining his – and your - life, you’ll have to do a few tasks for me.</em></p><p>
  <em>Your first task is this…”</em>
</p><p>She read the rest of the vile note in disgust and fear. A worried look crossed her features; not something that happened very often. This person had somehow found something Alicia <em>really</em>, really cared about; that particular incident not getting out. <em>And there’s only one person who could know</em>, Alicia thought, and set her mouth into a grim line.</p><p>She got up and marched towards the school building, fuming. Where was that wretched cousin of hers? This crossed the line, even for her.</p><p>She finally spotted her, laughing with a group of girls. She marched up to her, seething with rage.</p><p>“JUNE!” she shouted.</p><p>Her cousin looked up, surprised, and then rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Oh, god, what do <em>you</em> want,” the brazen brat drawled, in a bored voice very much like Alicia’s own.</p><p>“Don’t be cheeky. Come over here right now!” she yelled.</p><p>June made a face at her friends, who giggled and looked curiously at Alicia. Why, she was in a state! They had never seen the non-carish Alicia really worked up into a rage about anything; she always seemed to just not give a damn about life in general.</p><p>“What’s gotten you all hot and bothered?” asked June, raising her eyebrows.</p><p>“Oh, don’t act all coy,” snapped Alicia, tossing the note at her.</p><p>June stared at the note on the ground.</p><p>“What’s this, a love note?” she asked.</p><p>“Don’t be stupid. Pick it up,” barked the older girl.</p><p>June picked it up and read it through. When she had finished, she stared at her cousin in disbelief.</p><p>“What the hell is this?” she asked, incredulously.</p><p>“Don’t act like you don’t know,” snapped Alicia.</p><p>June frowned.</p><p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she insisted. “Who wrote this, your alter ego? Have you finally gone full psycho?”</p><p>Alicia looked into her cousin’s face and hesitated. She could read the girl’s expressions very clearly, for they were exactly like her own, and she could sense she wasn’t lying.</p><p>“If you wrote this, you’d better say so right now,” she said.</p><p>“I <em>didn’t</em>. Jesus, I wouldn’t waste my time writing this drivel.”</p><p>“Well, you certainly wasted your time writing those notes to Moira a few months ago,” snapped Alicia.</p><p>June rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Yes, but they were just notes. I didn’t waste my time actually blackmailing her; that sounds like an awful lot of effort,” she replied, pulling a face. “Plus, it’s not even that funny.”</p><p>Alicia sighed, realizing she was being truthful. It was true; had it been June, the note would have at least a slight amount of wit and humor in it. Also, it was obviously the same person who had put the needle in Zerelda’s lipstick, for it had been signed as <em>THE PUNISHER</em>; and June hadn’t been in the room then. She sighed, and June looked at her, worry crossing her features.</p><p>“Also, I love Sam. You know that. I might blackmail you, but never him.”</p><p>Alicia raised her eyebrows and nodded.</p><p>“I know,” she replied.</p><p>There was a short silence, and June spoke again.</p><p>“Say, Alicia…does someone else know?” she asked, her brow furrowed.</p><p>“Well, obviously,” snapped Alicia.</p><p>“What are you going to do?” June pressed.</p><p>Alicia shrugged her usual shrug, but her shoulders were heavy and her face lined with stress.</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>“I think you should,” replied June. “I mean…it’s not even that bad. What this – person’s asking you to do.”</p><p>Alicia nodded, frowning.</p><p>“I just – maybe I should have done something, June. I should have said something, or insisted he own up,” sighed Alicia.</p><p>“It was an accident,” said June, her voice hushed. “It’s not worth ruining his life over.”</p><p>Alicia nodded. Her cousin was right. She would do as the note said…after all, it wasn’t like it was a hard task, and it seemed harmless enough. She walked towards the staircase, heavier than she had ever felt.</p>
<hr/><p>Belinda barged into the common room after tea, fuming.</p><p>“Has anyone seen my sketchbook?” she demanded.</p><p>The girls who were there looked at her in astonishment.</p><p>“Isn’t it in your drawer?” asked Irene, surprised.</p><p>“No. I checked everywhere; it’s gone!”</p><p>She looked suspiciously at Gwendoline; if anyone had a problem with her sketchbook, it would be her; for it was full of unflattering drawings of her many scowls.</p><p>“Do you know where it is?” she demanded.</p><p>“Of course not. I’m not a thief. Unlike some people,” she replied indignantly, glancing at Daphne pointedly.</p><p>“It wasn’t me!” exclaimed Daphne, a little more defensively than was needed.</p><p>“Come on, I’ll help you look. It must be in our study somewhere in your messy pile of stuff,” said Irene, standing up.</p><p>They went to their study, and Irene began to search through her pile. After a while, she sighed sympathetically.</p><p>“No luck, old thing. Maybe if you were tidier…” she began.</p><p>“You’re one to talk,” replied Belinda, swatting her arm. “Look at all your music sheets; you can hardly see the table because of them!”</p><p>Irene grinned good-naturedly.</p><p>“I know...oh, look! I’ve been looking for this piece for ages!” she beamed, gathering a music piece off the floor from under the table.</p><p>Belinda sighed.</p><p>“Someone’s taken it, I’m sure of it! Blow! I bet it’s the same person who’s been playing all these beastly tricks. Is untidiness a sin now?” she groaned.</p><p>“Don’t be silly; I’m sure you just left it somewhere. It’ll show up. Who could possibly want to steal your sketchbook?” said Irene.</p><p>“Um, someone who appreciates art?” replied Belinda.</p><p>Irene laughed. “Of course. Excuse me; who <em>wouldn’t</em> want to steal your fine art?”</p><p>Belinda rolled her eyes and pulled Irene out of the room.</p><p>“I expect you’re right; it’ll show up soon enough. Come on, let’s go check in the dorm - “</p><p>Suddenly, they heard a cry of dismay from the study next to theirs; Darrell and Sally’s. Irene shot her friend a bewildered look. They rushed towards the study and found Sally at the doorway, staring in shock at the room.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” asked Belinda.</p><p>Sally gulped and stepped aside, and the girls let out a gasp.</p><p>On the wall was a drawing of Sally, and another of Alicia. They were Belinda’s, of course; she had drawn all the girls at some point or another. There was Sally’s drawing, her plain, sensible face smiling back at them, and next to it was Alicia’s, her smile bright and her eyes gleaming. Belinda was quite proud of them; but right now, she almost wished she hadn’t ever drawn them. For it wasn’t the drawings that were the problem, but what had been scribbled angrily, by someone else, above them with black felt-tip. On the drawing of Sally were the words: <em>SENSIBLY BORING, DULL, FORGETTABLE, PLAIN</em>. On Alicia’s, were the much more flattering:<em> FUN, DYNAMIC, UNFORGETTABLE, SMART.</em> Then, worst of all, in a big sheet of paper underneath: <em>IT’S NO WONDER YOU’RE ENVIOUS - THE PUNISHER.</em></p><p>“That’s my notebook, on the desk! How did it end up there?!” asked Belinda, incredulously. “And how did my drawings end up on that wall?!”</p><p>“What is this?” muttered a voice behind them.</p><p>The girls swiveled around. Darrell was staring disbelievingly at the wall, her eyes filling with something Sally knew too well; her temper was tipping over.</p><p>“Darrell – “ she began, reaching out for her arm, trying to stop that rage from coming out; but this time, her calming ways didn’t help. Darrell let out an angry growl and turned around, marching towards Alicia’s study. She barged in without knocking, and Alicia looked up, jumping at the sudden, unexpected entrance. She smiled nervously at Darrell, confusion visible on her face.</p><p>“Hey, old thing…what’s up?” she asked.</p><p>“Did you do that?” Darrell asked, her voice low and restrained.</p><p>“Do what?” asked Alicia, her eyes wide.</p><p>“Don’t play dumb with me, Alicia,” began Darrell dangerously.</p><p>“Darrell, I don’t know what you’re talking about. What happened?”</p><p>Alicia looked truly alarmed now, but Darrell was too angry and hurt to explain. She yanked Alicia’s arm and pulled her out of the study, ignoring her protests, and practically threw the girl into her own study, where Sally, Irene and Belinda watched, scared and confused.</p><p>“WAS THIS YOU?” she shouted, pointing at the wall, her face twisted with rage. Alicia gaped at the drawings, a look of disbelief on her face. Then her eyes fell on the notebook, and the expression on her face turned into one of guilty realization. The flash of guilt was enough for Darrell, who grabbed Alicia and began slapping her and shaking her. Alicia flinched and tried to cover her face with her hands; when Darrell got like this, it was almost as if her wrath gave her some sort of unnatural strength which nobody could match.</p><p>“STOP!” cried Sally, trying to pull her friend off the girl. But Darrell was completely taken over with rage, and the hurt and betrayal she felt only made it worse. She punched Alicia in the eye.</p><p>By then, nearly all the girls had come rushing to see what all the commotion was. Bill and Moira grabbed Darrell and began to pull her away from Alicia, while she continued to try to charge against her. Mary-Lou rushed towards Alicia and took her away to her study to tend to her now bruising eye, locking the door behind her. Darrell broke free from Bill and Moira’s grip and began banging on Mary-Lou’s door.</p><p>“What is this?! Stop it at once!” bellowed Miss Peters, appearing suddenly. Darrell swiveled around, still raging.</p><p>“Nothing, Miss Peters. We’ve got this,” muttered Bill, grabbing Darrell again.</p><p>“You can’t go around fighting like temperamental first formers! What’s wrong with you?” shouted Miss Peters, crossing her arms. Sally silently closed the door of her study before the mistress could see it.</p><p>“But Alicia – “began Darrell, shouting back.</p><p>“I don’t care who’s fault it was! Two week’s detention every night for you, Darrell. Keep shouting back and I’ll make it three,” snapped Miss Peters.</p><p>“Stop it, idiot,” hissed Bill.</p><p>Darrell took a deep breath, trying to calm the bubbling volcano of rage inside her.</p><p>“Another display of temper like that, Darrell, and I’ll report you to the head. You could get expelled for this sort of behavior. I thought you had learned to control that temper of yours long ago; apparently I was wrong. I want you all to go to bed right away.”</p><p>The girls groaned; how embarrassing to be sent to bed right after tea, like badly behaved first formers! They glared at Darrell, who was already feeling bad about flying off the handle like that. But Alicia had looked so guilty, she hadn’t been able to control herself. <em>I do hate her now</em>, she thought angrily, even though she knew deep down she could never hate her.</p><p>Miss Peters marched off and Sally sighed wearily.</p><p>“I’ll go to the common room and tell the girls that are there,” she said.</p><p>“What were you thinking, Darrell?” muttered Moira.</p><p>“Alicia, she – “began Darrell hotly.</p><p>“We don’t even know if it was her,” said Irene, frowning. She couldn’t believe Alicia could do something like that. She liked the lively, wicked Alicia, and considered her one of her best friends. “You just assumed out of nowhere.”</p><p>“Didn’t you see her face?” said Darrell, snorting angrily.</p><p>“But before that – why did you think it was her?” persisted Irene.</p><p>Darrell shook her head. Even if she tried to explain, they could never understand; how could they? She barely understood this sick dynamic they had going on between the three of them. Sally, Darrell and Alicia, a threesome filled with envy and strange feelings and <em>toying</em>. Alicia, always toying with her, always pulling at her strings; always rubbing the salt in their wounds with her serpents’ tongue.</p>
<hr/><p>Daphne knocked softly on Mary-Lou’s door.</p><p>“Miss Peters just sent us to go to bed,” she called out.</p><p>“We’ll be there in a few minutes,” called out Mary-Lou.</p><p>She sighed and continued putting anti-inflamatory cream on Alicia’s eye.</p><p>“What on earth made Darrell lose her temper with you like that?” she muttered, her brow furrowed.</p><p>“Someone played a nasty trick on Sally, and somehow Darrell thought it was me,” sighed Alicia, wincing slightly.</p><p>“Sorry, did that hurt?” asked Mary-Lou, taking her hand away.</p><p>“No; carry on. It’s quite calming. You’re very good at this stuff,” she remarked. “Nursing, I mean.”</p><p>“I think that’s the first compliment you’ve ever paid me,” replied Mary-Lou, smiling slightly. Alicia looked up at her; she was so different from the Mary-Lou she knew from first form. She was surer of herself, had a quiet sort of confidence around her and overall just showed so much growth. She still had a nervous look in her eye and screamed whenever she saw a bug, but those were the things that made her Mary-Lou. Alicia couldn’t help admiring how much she had grown as a person generally – something she herself hadn’t seemed to be able to do during all these years. She was still the same old careless, wicked Alicia from the first day at Malory Towers. She was a failure.</p><p>“Well, maybe I should pay you some more. Why, Mary-Lou, how big your eyes are,” she said.</p><p>Mary-Lou grinned and shook her head.</p><p>“You sound like the big bad wolf in red riding hood,” she replied.</p><p>“Maybe I am the big bad wolf. Darrell seems to think so,” sighed Alicia.</p><p>“Darrell’s sure to come around,” replied Mary-Lou, with an almost embarrassing faith and confidence in her voice when talking about the other girl; almost a sort of reverence. The same voice, Alicia noted suddenly, that Darrell made whenever she defended her to Sally or Moira.</p><p>Who knew when she would hear that voice again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you enjoyed this drama fest!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Greed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daphne hadn’t told anyone she was sick.</p><p>Not a sickness like a cough, or a cold, or even that heart problem Gwendoline claimed to have – but a sickness of the mind. It was an impulse; it was something she thought she had under control, yet with each day that passed, it was painfully evident that she didn’t.</p><p>The impulse was there whenever she saw Darrell’s fountain pen, or Gwendoline’s fine scarves and gloves, or Catherine’s brooch. She had always been deprived of pretty things, and she loved them so. She had resolved to never steal from her loved ones again, though, especially not these girls; they would never ever trust her again, and who could blame them? Also, she didn’t want to. The impulse was there when she saw some of their belongings, but it quickly disappeared when she rationalized who they belonged to.</p><p>She was terrified of stealing from them, not just because it was wrong, but because she loved them, and she knew to steal their things would be to hurt them. Even the ones she didn’t like as much; she still knew them, and shared lessons and a bedroom with them. But those impulses were so darn impossible to resist sometimes.</p><p>So whenever she felt that need to steal, she went down to the shops in town.</p><p>She hadn’t stolen anything expensive or big; just a little decorative stone at the gift shop, a pair of cheap earrings from the jewelry store and a little hanky…among some other things. These small thefts had managed to quench that thirst, that insatiable hunger she had. She would often return these items quietly, as unnoticed as she had been when she stole them, the guilt and remorse over having done so crushing her. The things she did not return, she stashed away in a box under her bed, as if she were hiding dirty evidence of a murder.</p><p>That guilt she felt after the strong high made her feel as though she <em>had</em> committed a murder.</p><p>She tried telling herself it was nothing; they were just knick-knacks, after all, they were hardly going to be missed in those shops. She would never steal something big or valuable.</p><p>She couldn’t resist, however, when she saw that perfume.</p><p>The bottle was the prettiest thing Daphne had ever seen; small and silver, with pink sparkles. When she unscrewed the top and took a sniff, she practically swooned at the delicious rose-scented aroma. </p><p>It was worth several pounds.</p><p>She hesitated. It was like two voices were battling in her head, a good voice and a bad voice. The bad voice was so powerful, so strong, and kept hissing at her to just take it.</p><p>
  <em>Just reach out and take it. </em>
</p><p>So she did, feeling the usual dopamine high rising up deep inside her as she did so. </p><p>Any other person would have been caught; not Daphne. She had become an expert at sneaking objects quickly under her clothes, much like a magician’s disappearing act. If anyone ever looked at her suspiciously or questioningly, all she had to do was flash an innocent smile and they would smile back, charmed, all suspicion forgotten. Who could think such a beautiful, charming schoolgirl could ever do something as lowly as steal?</p><p>She headed towards the exit door; however, the shopkeeper, a rather flamboyant older gentleman of around fifty, stopped her.</p><p>“Hullo, there, dear. I always see you come in here; you must be very fond of perfumes and jewelry,” he beamed, already charmed by the girl’s pretty looks.</p><p>Daphne flashed him a radiant smile.</p><p>“I am!”</p><p>“I have this pretty necklace, it would suit you so well!” he reached down and produced a box with a stunning gold necklace. “It would look so beautiful with your golden hair,” he smiled.</p><p>“Oh, it’s beautiful!” exclaimed Daphne. “I’m afraid I have no money with me at the moment, though – my family sends me some cash at the end of the month, so maybe I’ll be able to buy it then,” she replied. </p><p>Of course, that was a lie; her parents would never be able to afford that necklace.</p><p>The shopkeeper beamed and nodded.</p><p>“I’ll save it for you until then,” he replied with a smile.</p><p>Daphne beamed back, although inside she felt like crying. As if the crushing guilt wasn’t bad enough, he had to go and be so <em>nice</em> to her.</p><p><em>That’s one shop I won’t be able to return to</em>, she thought to herself miserably.</p><p>She got on the bus and as soon as she sat down, she burst into tears. She was such an awful person. How could she be so dreadful? She hardly recognized herself when she did these things; she knew she wasn’t all bad – yet when she stole, she couldn’t believe she had any goodness inside her at all. She had been doing all right too, just sticking to knick-knacks and returning them as soon as she could – and now she had broken her first rule; to not steal anything valuable.</p><p>She brought her knees up to her chest, tears streaming down her face, as the bus made its way across town and into the countryside, feeling the top of the perfume bottle jutting into her breast underneath her brassiere.</p><p>She didn’t realize somebody she knew was on that bus, smiling as they saw her crumpled up, sobbing face reflected in the window.</p><hr/><p>Darrell tried to ignore the stares and whispers directed her way the day after the Alicia incident, but it wasn’t easy. She felt deeply ashamed; she hadn’t lost her temper quite so badly, <em>ever</em>.  Even when she had lost it with Gwendoline back when they were in the first form, or with June a few years ago; all she had done was shake them. She had never <em>punched</em> somebody. She couldn’t even rationalize why she had been so certain it had been Alicia then, for she wasn’t so sure now. She obviously had <em>something</em> to do with it – she felt the rage rise up again, remembering her guilty look upon seeing Belinda’s notebook on the table.</p><p><em>But before that, why did you think it was her?</em> Irene’s voice rang in her mind. The truth is, she didn’t know. It had something to do with Sally’s jealous streak always flaring up whenever Darrell talked to Alicia. It had something to do with Alicia’s wicked tongue asking earlier if Sally was a match to her, when the exasperating girl <em>knew</em> she wasn’t a match. Not because she liked Alicia more – but because she liked her in a different way. Darrell shook her head, rubbing her forehead. Had she really never gotten over that first form admiration for the girl?</p><p>Sally, meanwhile, hadn’t spoken to Darrell all day; she wasn’t angry, exactly – but she was tired, and rather fed up. She was forever being the pacifier, the calming presence, the water to quench Darrell’s fire; and no matter how much effort she put in, Darrell always seemed to go back to whatever fed her flames. She had been played an awful prank on, and yet Darrell still managed to make it all about her temper and her strange relationship with Alicia.</p><p>Sally frowned to herself as she made her way out of the classroom; lessons had been uncharacteristically quiet today, apart from the few whispers and stares directed Darrell and Alicia’s way. Even the gossip was all about them, she thought, rolling her eyes. So typical. All Sally got were a few raised eyebrows and pitying glances; poor, boring, envious Sally.</p><p><em>The strange thing is</em>, Sally thought to herself, <em>I’m sure it wasn’t Alicia who did this</em>. <em>So why did Darrell immediately jump to that conclusion?</em> Sally had always been excellent at reading people, and while Alicia was very annoying, and had many faults, she wasn’t really spiteful, or vengeful in any way. Also, she just – didn’t <em>care enough</em> to do something like this. It didn’t add up.</p><p>Then, it hit her; all this was, deep down, in a very twisted way, Darrell’s wishful thinking. <em>She wished</em> Alicia cared about her enough to waste her energy doing this sort of thing. And as for Sally…why, she<em> wished</em> Alicia could really feel so threatened by her, when they both knew – the three of them knew – that the person who felt most threatened was Sally.</p><hr/><p>The first person to speak to Darrell that day was Betty. She walked over to where Darrell was sitting with her head in her hands, looking absolutely destroyed.</p><p>“You all right there?” she asked, lightly.</p><p>Darrell looked up and immediately scowled, standing up to leave.</p><p>“Oh dear – are you mad at me too? Alicia and I <em>are</em> different people, you know,” said Betty, matter-of-factly.</p><p>Darrell stopped and sat back down. Betty was right; it wasn’t fair to lump her in the same bag of anger as Alicia merely because she was her best friend. She had always liked Betty, even though she had badly wanted her place as Alicia’s best friend in the first form – maybe still now. But unlike Sally, she wasn’t the jealous type. Also, deep down, she recognized it wasn’t that she wanted Betty’s <em>place</em>, exactly, not as best friend – it was another place she wanted, one she didn’t understand.</p><p>“Did Alicia send you to reason with me, or something?” asked Darrell.</p><p>“Nope. I came without my clone’s blessing,” replied Betty cheerfully.</p><p><em>Of course she didn’t</em>, thought Darrell, suddenly remembering Moira’s words from the other day: “<em>She can’t be bothered to come after me and talk for herself, and she can’t even be bothered to send someone else to talk for her… she just can’t be bothered, Darrell. She can’t be bothered to care about the game, or about you, or about anything. Can’t you see that?”</em></p><p>She couldn’t be bothered to care.</p><p>“Look, Darrell…I just want to say; however much I love Alicia, I never liked the way she treated you,” said Betty.</p><p>“What do you mean?” frowned Darrell.</p><p>“Well…I feel she always took advantage of how much you look up to her. She always has, since first form,” replied Betty, trying not to let her tongue run away with her. Betty’s tongue was less sharp and cutting than Alicia’s, but it tended to be more lose, somehow, more careless; it usually said things before she had even time to think them, which often resulted in her saying rather dumb things – which, granted, were funny, but made her look like an empty-head at times – or putting her foot in it, so to speak.</p><p>“I don’t <em>look up</em> to her,” began Darrell indignantly, trying to preserve at least some of her dignity. “I – I’m fond of her, that’s all. <em>Was</em> fond of her,” she corrected herself, clenching her jaw.</p><p>“I don’t know. I think you <em>do</em> look up to her – kind of like Mary-Lou looks up to you. And she uses that to her advantage, and I think maybe your losing your temper last night had more to do with that than with that – trick that was played on Sally. After all – you can’t <em>really</em> believe that it was Alicia who did that.”</p><p>Darrell frowned; it did make sense. When she hit Alicia, it had felt like years of pent up frustration of sorts that had finally been let out – though, of course, not in the best or most effective way. However, she couldn’t admit that to Betty; for she couldn’t even understand it herself.</p><p>“Look – last night, I got angry because I thought she had played that awful trick on Sally. I don’t know why, but I – I do think she did it,” she replied stiffly.</p><p>Betty sighed.</p><p>“Darrell, you know Alicia; she’s not spiteful –even when she is, she doesn’t go out of her way to get her own back on anyone…and anyway, what spite could she possibly have towards Sally? She’s never talked ill of her with me…she may have made fun of her once or twice, but that’s it…”</p><p>Darrell frowned and stood up.</p><p>“I don’t know. I don’t really know anything, anymore,” she replied curtly, turning on her heel and walking away, not wanting to come to think about this possible fact: the fact that she had, in a way, hoped Alicia <em>did</em> have spite towards Sally; because that would mean she cared. Then again – even though she didn’t care, maybe she had done it to simply toy with Darrell and Sally; she certainly seemed to have no limits when it came to that. </p><hr/><p>“She was totally looking at you!” Bill whispered, her grin wide.</p><p>Moira took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to be patient; which was not a virtue of hers, unfortunately. Ever since she had disclosed her sexuality to Bill, the girl had seemed to take it as an invitation to be best buddies. Not only that, but she insisted on finding her ‘someone to fool around with.’ She had tried to hide behind a book when she had seen the tomboy come in the library – <em>What is she doing here? She never comes to the library! </em>She had thought in despair – but Bill had spotted her immediately and had sat down at her table, grinning goofily.</p><p>Bill was just happy to have found someone who she could confide in freely – apart from Clarissa, of course. But with a friend, it was different; it felt great to be able to talk to someone other than her girlfriend freely about these things.</p><p>“First of all, no she wasn’t. Second of all, will you keep your voice down,” she hissed. “Honestly, no wonder Miss Peters told you off for not being more careful. I think there might be a lady in Russia who didn’t hear you.”</p><p>Bill waved her hand impatiently.</p><p>“I’m telling you; this is your chance. We are at an <em>all girl’s boarding school</em>.”</p><p>Moira stared.</p><p>“So?”</p><p>“So…when are you going to be this surrounded by females ever again?” Bill grinned. “Not to mention, we’re seventeen, so we’re all hormonal, y’know…”</p><p>Moira flushed and cleared her throat nervously.</p><p>“Bill, I told you. I’m not interested in that sort of thing right now,” she replied.</p><p>“There must be <em>someone</em> you like,” insisted Bill. “Hell, I have a mental list of the girls I would fool around with, and I’m taken. Don’t tell Clarissa,” she added hurriedly.</p><p>Moira snorted and rolled her eyes, fixing her eyes back on her book.</p><p>“Come on. Let’s see…Alicia?”</p><p>Moira looked up incredulously.</p><p>“Seriously? No! We can’t stand each other!” she replied.</p><p>“Darrell? I’m pretty sure she has an inclination…though she probably doesn’t know it, she’s not the most self-aware person…”</p><p>Moira shook her head.</p><p>“Not my type,” she replied. Bill grinned.</p><p>“Oooh, I had a feeling your type was more like mine. You like the prissy, girly ones, don’t you? Like Clarissa…you can’t have her, though,” she added, suddenly serious.</p><p>“Shame; she is very pretty,” murmured Moira under her breath.</p><p>“What was that?” said Bill sharply.</p><p>“Nothing,” replied Moira, her lips twitching in mild amusement.</p><p>Bill looked suspiciously at the head girl and went back to thinking about potential options.</p><p>“Gwendoline?”</p><p>Moira snorted.</p><p>“Seriously?” she replied, raising an eyebrow.</p><p>“What? I wouldn’t mind doing a few things with her…don’t tell Clarissa,” she added hurriedly, once again.</p><p>Moira shook her head, bemused.</p><p>“Catherine?” Bill went on.</p><p>“Do NOT,” Moira replied harshly. Bill widened her eyes.</p><p>“Oooh, some bad history there, huh?” she grinned, clearly enjoying the situation.</p><p>“Bill, I told you, I’m not – “</p><p>“…not interested in anything of the sort right now, yes, yes, I know. Did Catherine wound you or something?”</p><p>Moira was silent for a while.</p><p>“I don’t want to talk about it,” she finally replied, her voice tight. “It was an…embarrassing situation. I misinterpreted some things.”</p><p>“Whatever. You deserve better than that doormat…say! What about Daphne?” she suddenly whispered.</p><p>Moira chuckled and shook her head.</p><p>“Well, you’re aiming low, aren’t you,” she replied sarcastically. As if the beautiful Daphne could ever be anything but heterosexual, or interested in <em>her</em>.</p><p>“Well, she’s been staring at you for the past five minutes,” grinned Bill.</p><p>“Oh, please,” replied Moira, rolling her eyes. “That girl’s like Gwendoline, I expect. She would die at the very thought of our existence.”</p><p>“I’m not so sure about that…Clarissa seems to think she’s much like herself,” shrugged Bill. “She insists she’s an awful flirt; apparently she flirted with me once and I didn’t notice, but Clar got really jealous - I said she was crazy, but you know…femmes recognize femmes and all that.”</p><p>Moira stared blankly.</p><p>“Traditionally feminine lesbians,” clarified Bill.</p><p>“I know what femmes are, Bill,” snapped Moira, lying. She didn’t; she had nearly no knowledge whatsoever in that kind of slang. She hadn’t much experience at all, apart from that embarrassing incident with Catherine a few years back.</p><p>“No shame in not knowing,” shrugged Bill. “I didn’t know anything about anything before I met Clarissa. She’s the one who knew all that stuff – she’s more street smart than she looks,” she smiled fondly.</p><p>“<em>She</em> corrupted you, then?” Moira smiled unexpectedly.</p><p>“Well…she made the first move, yes. I was too scared to make a move; I didn’t think I stood a flying chance with her to be honest with you – don’t tell Clarissa, though,” she grinned, “she’ll get a big head.”</p><hr/><p>Daphne <em>had</em> been staring at Moira. It had stirred her curiosity to suddenly see her whispering so much with Bill – since when were they so close?</p><p>When Bill and Clarissa had told them all about the trick that had been played on them, Daphne had at once suspected that it had had to do with their obvious ‘lust’ for each other – honestly, who did they think they were fooling, when they disappeared off to the stables for hours on end? – and the fact that Moira hadn’t reported to the Greyling made Daphne think that perhaps Bill had told her. If her suspicions were correct, then she wondered if Moira was like them, also; either that or she was incredibly open-minded and decent – not two words she would usually use to describe the head girl.</p><p>She <em>had</em> to be like them.</p><p>Daphne wasn’t at all a shy girl, so she decided to go up to them and make sure for herself. She walked up to them, hips swaying, smiling the smile she knew for a fact made boys and girls weak in the knees.</p><p>Bill began to cough and look at Moira in a most alarmed and amused way and Daphne had to restrain from rolling her eyes. Could the tomboy <em>be</em> more obvious?</p><p>“Hello,” she smiled, keeping her voice low. She squatted down on her heels next to the sitting Moira, looking up at her through her long lashes and opening her legs slightly, not enough to be obvious but just enough to be provocative. “Are you revising for that history exam?”</p><p>Bill’s eyes looked as though they were about to fall out of their sockets, and as for Moira, she had begun choking on her own saliva, her normally stoic face red. Daphne looked up innocently.</p><p>“Are you all right?” she asked, letting out a soft and innocent yet somehow sensual giggle.</p><p>“Yes – and yes. We are,” replied Moira, clearing her throat.</p><p>“Oh. Do you know anything for the exam? I’m useless; I can’t get my facts straight at all,” simpered Daphne, and bit her lip. “I think I may need some tutoring.”</p><p>“Well, I’m sure Miss Cox can – ouch!” exclaimed Moira, feeling Bill’s foot kicking hard into her ankle under the table. Daphne continued to smile and bat her eyelashes, pretending not to notice a thing.</p><p>“Moira knows a lot about history. She can tutor you,” said Bill, giving Moira a look.</p><p>“I don’t think – ouch!” Moira shouted again.</p><p>“SSSSH!” hissed a girl on a table near them, frowning. </p><p>“Oh, that would be splendid,” beamed Daphne. “Could you?” she asked the head girl, making her eyes wide and hopeful.</p><p>“Erm – yes…all right, then,” said Moira gruffly, throwing Bill a cross look.</p><p>“Thanks ever so much,” smiled the blonde girl, lifting herself back up elegantly. “Is tomorrow good for you? We could meet outside of school, for a change. Maybe that little coffee shop in town, Mr. Ripley’s?”</p><p>Moira nodded, speechless.</p><p>“Four o’clock. She’ll be there,” said Bill.</p><p>With that, Daphne walked off – strutted off, more like – with a triumphant smile on her face.</p><hr/><p>Bill was too excited to stay in the library, so she decided to drag Moira along to her study. Once they were inside, Bill exploded.</p><p>“JESUS! Did you see that?!”</p><p>“Yes, Bill, I was there, remember?” replied Moira, rolling her eyes at the other girl’s over the top excitement and sitting down at the table.</p><p>“I was just teasing you about her and SHE WALKED UP TO US!” exclaimed Bill.</p><p>“Who walked up to who?” said Clarissa, walking into the study.</p><p>“Daphne!” grinned Bill.</p><p>“Oh, she did, did she,” began Clarissa testily, crossing her arms.</p><p>“Not to me, silly! To Moira! She began flirting like crazy! And then…get this…she asked her out!”</p><p>“Really?” giggled Clarissa. “Maybe we could go on double dates!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together with glee, excited at the prospect.</p><p>Moira rolled her eyes.</p><p>“She just asked me to tutor her, that’s all,” she replied.</p><p>“At a coffee shop! That is a date, Moira!” Bill insisted. She then turned to Clarissa, her eyes gleaming.</p><p> “She practically threw herself at her,” she continued, “she got down on her heels and looked up at her, batting her eyelashes and all that. She did this thing with her legs…”</p><p>Clarissa raised her eyebrows, putting her hands on her hips.</p><p>“Well, you certainly took a good look at her, didn’t you,” she remarked jealously, but with a tinge of amusement.</p><p>“Don’t be silly, darling, I only have eyes for you,” replied Bill, throwing an arm around her.</p><p>Moira rolled her eyes and stood up.</p><p>“Well, I’ll leave you two to sort out your marital issues,” she remarked drily, heading towards the door. “I’m going to keep revising.”</p><p>“You do that; remember to prepare for your tutoring session tomorrow!” called out Bill.</p><p>Moira grinned to herself slightly, shaking her head. Honestly, that Bill was the limit. However, she had to admit – she was looking forward to tomorrow.</p><p>Alas; she was in for a disappointment…for Daphne wouldn’t show up!</p><hr/><p>Daphne been looking forward to the date as well.</p><p>She had never really liked Moira; however, she found her insanely attractive; especially now she knew she was attracted to girls. What could she say, she had a thing for domineering girls with a steely look in their eyes. She suddenly found she was nervous; she wanted to make a good impression. She had never really felt that before, and shook her head at the silliness of it; why, people were impressed by her beauty whether she tried to or not. But this was different; she wanted to impress her in other ways. She wanted the girl to actually like <em>her</em>; her brains, her personality…the aspects of herself that she had never really bothered to truly nurture before. She had never felt the need to; her beauty had always made up for whatever else she might lack, or whatever the ugly parts of her personality might be. <em>Like the fact you’re a thief</em>, the little voice in her head sneered, and she pushed it away, determined not to hear it.</p><p>She went up to the dormitory to change out of her uniform; the girls were allowed to wear regular clothes whenever they went to town. She usually didn’t bother, since her regular clothes weren’t exactly grand, but today was different. She slipped on her best dress and sighed. Her mother had hemmed it for her, and it showed; but it would have to do. She put on some liptick – after checking to make sure there was no needle in there – and smiled approvingly.</p><p>She was about to leave when she remembered the perfume she had stolen. She hesitated. Should she put some on? It didn’t seem right to do so, but it was such a lovely scent – and she did want to smell nice.</p><p>She took out the bottle out of her box of stolen goods and began rubbing some of the liquid on her hands, on her neck, behind her ears…</p><p>She suddenly gasped. Oh, it burned! It really, really burned!</p><p>She rushed to the bathroom and began splashing cold water on her skin, her eyes watering with pain. What <em>was</em> this perfume?! She at her hands and gasped; there were big, red burns on them. She looked at the mirror and saw, to her dismay, her neck was burned as well.</p><p>“Oh, god,” she cried, splashing more water. It was no use; the water did nothing to calm the irritated skin. She grabbed the bottle, peering at it as she winced with pain; surely this wasn’t any ordinary perfume. This had to be a trick of sorts.</p><p>She ran towards her box and began to rummage desperately through it, her hands throbbing with pain; suddenly, she spotted a folded up piece of paper. She opened it up – not an easy task with those welts on her hands – and let out a cry.</p><p>
  <em>“When you’re full of GREED, eventually you’ll get burned. Good luck hiding away these red welts, you GREEDY THIEF – THE PUNISHER.”</em>
</p><p>“Oh, god,” sobbed Daphne, tears streaming down her face as the pain got worse and worse.</p><p>She suddenly heard footsteps. She began throwing the stuff back in the box desperately, terrified at being caught.</p><p>Her heart sank when she saw who it was. Mary-Lou.</p><p>“Daphne, what happened?” asked her friend, her eyes wide at the sight of her red burns.</p><p>“I –“ Daphne sobbed, not knowing what to say. How could she? Mary-Lou would hate her.</p><p>Mary-Lou went up to her, and took the paper from her hands. She read it silently, frowning. She looked up and sighed, disappointment all over her face.</p><p>“Oh, Daphne. Is this true?” she whispered.</p><p>Daphne nodded miserably.  </p><p>“I’m a thief, Mary-Lou. Somebody put something in that perfume I stole,” she replied, almost inaudibly.</p><p>Mary-Lou was silent for a few minutes.</p><p>“Come on,” she finally said. “I have some cream for those burns in our study.”</p><hr/><p>“It looks like hydrochloric acid or something,” frowned Mary-Lou, putting some calming cream on the burns. “It’s what’s used in cleaning liquids,” she added, smiling slightly at her friend’s confused face.</p><p>Daphne nodded, still looking absolutely miserable; at least the pain was subsiding slightly, thanks to Mary-Lou’s cream. Mary-Lou sighed, shaking her head.</p><p>“Why do you do it?” she murmured.</p><p>Daphne sighed, a tear streaming down her face.</p><p>“I - don’t know,” she replied helplessly. “It’s like I can’t help myself. Mary-Lou, I think there’s something seriously wrong with me,” she whispered. “I’m a terrible person.”</p><p>Mary-Lou bit her lip and took the blonde’s hands in hers.</p><p>“Listen to me, Daphne. You’re not a bad person. All right? You mustn’t ever think that,” she said quietly. “I know you. This – stealing – it’s not who you are. It has to stop. You’re better than that.”</p><p>“But Mary-Lou…what if I can’t stop?” whispered Daphne, her voice shaking.</p><p>Mary-Lou didn’t know what to say. She felt helpless, lost. She was good when it came to physical injuries and illnesses; but she knew nothing about troubles of the mind.</p><p>Daphne looked her watch, which she had taken off and placed on her lap, and sighed. She was supposed to meet Moira an hour ago; it was too late now.</p><p><em>She’ll think I stood her up</em>, thought Daphne. <em>She’ll think I was playing with her. She’ll think I’m awful</em>.</p><p>Then she thought, <em>so what? It’s true; you are awful</em>.</p><p> How could Daphne ever have thought anyone could like her horrible personality? Any hopes she had of impressing the girl flew out of the window. She had nothing good to offer, and she preferred the girl thinking she was awful for playing with her and standing her up than her knowing her true awfulness: that she was a common, greedy thief.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Gluttony</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“<em>Tiens</em>! Alicia! What has happened to your eye!” exclaimed Mam’zelle, clutching her chest. There was an awkward silence; and everyone steadfastly looked away from Darrell.</p><p>“I had a fall, Mam’zelle,” replied Alicia cheerfully.</p><p>Darrell frowned. Alicia hadn’t told any of the teachers the truth. She wasn’t exactly surprised; Alicia wasn’t a sneak. Still, it made her wonder if perhaps she had been right and Alicia <em>had</em> played the trick on Sally, and kept quiet out of guilt. It would certainly explain why she hadn’t come to talk to Darrell after the incident, at least to insist it hadn’t been her.</p><p>The truth was, Alicia did feel guilty. Had she known what that awful person had been up to, she wouldn’t have done the stupid task. Or would she?</p><p>Alicia sighed to herself; she probably would have, for she cared more about her brother than she did about Sally…or about Darrell for that matter, even though she was greatly fond of Darrell. It was her <em>brother</em>, for god’s sake. And to be honest – she had found it slightly funny.</p><p><em>She should have just laughed it off</em>, thought Alicia, thinking about Sally’s pale face as she saw those pictures on the wall, trying to convince herself that the trick hadn’t been <em>that</em> bad. She couldn’t understand what Sally was so jealous of, anyway; Darrell had made it clear many times she preferred Sally as a friend. She had chosen her.</p><p><em>Exactly; she prefers Sally - as a friend</em>, the voice in her head insisted.</p><p>Alicia wasn’t stupid; she could tell it wasn’t exactly friendship Darrell wanted from her. As for Sally – she was pretty sure that jealousy merely stemmed from fear of losing Darrell as a best friend, almost as a sister. She was much too straight laced to feel anything of <em>that</em> sort for Darrell; she likely couldn’t comprehend <em>why</em> Darrell liked Alicia so much, and felt threatened by it. Felt threatened by Alicia taking her place of best friend.</p><p><em>Very well, then</em>, thought Alicia. <em>I’ll steer clear of both of them</em>. She was done toying with Darrell, getting kicks out of that blatant crush, and she was done with Sally’s ignorant dramatics.</p><p>She reached into her desk and pulled out her French book. Then she frowned; inside the book, was yet another note.</p><p>
  <em>“Time to cure that SLOTH once more! Here is your second task…”</em>
</p><p>Alicia frowned. <em>What the actual hell</em>, she thought. What on earth was this person up to now? The task was absolutely stupid. She racked her brains, wondering why on earth this psycho asked her to collect worms in a plastic bottle and put it in Gwen’s back. It was actually not a bad trick, and quite harmless.<em> I mean, if that’s all…it seems like the sort of harmless trick I would do, </em>she thought to herself. It seemed like a very tame change from the harsh pranks that had been played on Zerelda, Bill, Clarissa and Sally. She shrugged and folded up the note, putting it away in her pocket.</p><p>The bell rang, signaling the end of lessons, and she leapt up, ready to get this strange task over with.</p><p>“Want to come for a swim?” asked Betty.</p><p>“Mam’zelle asked me to do something for her - you go ahead; I’ll go later if I can,” Alicia replied.</p><p>She then walked out of the classroom and down the staircase, whistling, trying to conceal the worry she felt as she made her way to the school grounds. She saw Darrell stiffen up as she walked briskly past her, face clenched stoically. She felt a twinge of hurt in her chest; she was fond of Darrell, even if not in the way Darrell wanted her to be. But there was no time to think about that; she had to do this quickly.</p><p>She made her way to the end of the grounds, were she was less likely to be noticed, and looked around; there was nobody near her. She drank the last drops from her water bottle and began to look for worms in the ground. </p><p>“Say, Alicia! What are you doing?”</p><p>Alicia jumped and turned around to see Catherine frowning in confusion at her.</p><p>“I’m just…doing some gardening,” replied Alicia cheerfully.</p><p>Catherine smiled uncertainly.</p><p>“I didn’t know you liked gardening!”</p><p>“Yeah, well…you don’t know a lot of things about me.”</p><p>“I’m sure I don’t. When you’re such an interesting person, I suppose you would have a wide array of interests! Good for you, Alicia, dear,” beamed Catherine, and Alicia threw up in her mouth a little. Did Catherine have to be so sickly sweet all the time?</p><p>“I can help you, if you like,” smiled Catherine, walking towards her.</p><p>“No!” snapped Alicia. “I – I prefer to do my gardening on my own. It gives me time to – think.”</p><p>“Oh,” replied Catherine, taken aback. She immediately put on her sickly sweet smile back on her face. “Well, I suppose such a witty and bright brain like yours <em>would</em> need some alone time to rest sometimes …”</p><p>Alicia groaned inwardly. Bloody saint Catherine; she was so annoying. When she finally left, Alicia heaved a sigh of relief and continued her task. She spotted a handful of worms; she wasn’t queasy about them, so she picked them up with her hand and pushed them one by one swiftly into the plastic bottle.</p><p>“Sorry about this, crawlies,” she murmured, looking pityingly at the wriggling worms, and hiding the bottle away in her bag. “Now I just have to sneak you into dear Gwendoline Mary’s bag.”</p><hr/><p>Sneaking the bottle into Gwen’s bag turned out to be quite an easy task; all she had to do was follow her around a bit without being spotted until she got distracted with something and left the bag unsupervised - and distractions, with Gwen, often involved food. She suddenly spotted Gwendoline walking towards the cupboard where first and second formers were known to keep their midnight feast snacks; Alicia swiftly hid behind a door right next to it until Gwen was so engrossed in the contents that she didn’t even notice the girl reaching out and silently grabbing her bag. She hid again and quickly put the bottle in it, and then, after making sure Gwen was still not paying attention to anything other than the snacks, pushed it back where it was, at the blonde’s feet.</p><p>Then she waited patiently until Gwen finally walked away and grinned.</p><p>How the girl would squeal when she found those worms!</p><p><em>My hat’s off to you</em>, psycho; she thought to herself. <em>This is actually a pretty decent trick</em>!</p><hr/><p>Daphne had managed to cover up the burns on her neck with a scarf and her hands with a pair of gloves, although she had to put up with the incredulous looks and comments directed her way: <em>Say, Daphne, aren’t you hot with all that on?</em></p><p>She had avoided Moira all day; steadily avoiding to look her way during lessons and rushing off right afterwards. She was so embarrassed, and felt so humiliated even though nobody except for Mary-Lou knew about her incident –</p><p>As for Moira, she had, in typical Moira style, convinced herself she didn’t mind one bit; she hadn’t even <em>wanted</em> Daphne to turn up in the first place. Moira had told Bill she hadn’t shown up. That was a lie, of course, to preserve her pride; she had gone, and waited for half an hour – then she had left when she realized it had all been obviously some kind of prank.</p><p>“How could you not go?!” exclaimed Bill, her eyes wide with amazement.</p><p>“I told you. I’m not interested in anything like that right now,” she replied curtly.</p><p>“I can’t believe it,” she said, absolutely flabbergasted. “Are you sure you’re a lesbian?” she asked accusingly.</p><p>Moira rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Yes, I’m sure.”</p><p>“Then how could you stand <em>that</em> up?!” she demanded. “She’s the most beautiful thing to ever grace this planet! Except for Clarissa, of course,” she added quickly, smiling fondly, her eyes glazing over slightly as she thought of her girlfriend.</p><p>Moira shrugged and said nothing, while Bill looked at her doubtfully. Something didn’t add up here; the girl had looked as though she had been looking forward to the date the day before.</p><p>“Are you <em>sure</em> you didn’t go?” she asked, squinting suspiciously.</p><p>“Unless I hit my head and now have a severe case of amnesia were I don’t remember what I did yesterday, then yes, I’m sure,” answered Moira irritably.</p><p>She always got in a foul mood whenever she felt her pride had been attacked. She had always been this way, ever since she was little; if her sister Bridget, in one of her spiteful moments, said anything embarrassing about her in front of her family or friends, Moira wouldn’t speak to her for a month, and wouldn’t accept any apology.</p><p>It was the same reason she hadn’t spoken to her father, let alone visit him, for six years; the last time she had spoken to him, she had been eleven years old. She had never forgotten the merciless bullying from the wicked schoolmates of her old school, or the pitying looks from the kinder ones; she preferred the bullying, she never had been able to stand being pitied. She had never forgiven her father for jeopardizing her pride that way; for jeopardizing their entire family’s pride.</p><p>It was why she never spoke of her family and kept to herself; she was ashamed of him, and Moira avoided the feeling of shame at all costs. Avoided the pitying looks.</p><hr/><p>“How many sweets do you reckon she can eat in under one minute?” muttered Alicia in a low voice. The girls had just finished lunch, and they were in the common room; however, Gwen’s appetite didn’t seem to be satisfied, and she was binging on some sweets. Darrell and Sally were sat near the end, hardly exchanging two words; Moira was in conversation with Bill and Clarissa – they seemed to be awfully close all of a sudden, thought Alicia curiously – and Alicia was sitting near some of the remaining girls that still spoke to her; Catherine, Irene, Belinda, Daphne and Mary-Lou.</p><p>Irene grinned.</p><p>“Five,” she replied.</p><p>“You’re being much too generous,” grinned Belinda. “I say eight.”</p><p>“Nine,” laughed Daphne, joining in.</p><p>“Poor Gwen,” said Mary-Lou, though her eyes were slightly bright with amusement.</p><p>“I say, Alicia, aren’t you being rather unkind?” said Catherine reproachfully.</p><p>“She’s the one being unkind, to her stomach,” retorted Alicia. Irene snorted.</p><p>“There are times to be kind and times to be unkind, dear Catherine,” she continued. “Girls like Gwen need a bit of unkindness. She’s been brought up with way too much kindness; maybe if her mother had been a little bit unkind and neglected her a cookie once in a while she wouldn’t indulge huge amounts of whatever she’s craving in the moment and making herself so fat and spotty.”</p><p>Catherine sighed.</p><p>“Poor Gwen; she can’t help being fat and having spots, Alicia.”</p><p>Alicia rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Oh, stop making excuses for everyone all the time. She can help being fat by not stuffing her face with food and exercising once in a while…”</p><p>She suddenly stopped, holding her breath as she saw the blonde reaching out and rummaging through her bag. She waited for the scream – but it didn’t come. Instead of taking out the bottle, as Alicia had expected, she took out a box of chocolates.</p><p>“How much you want to bet she won’t offer any of those around?” grinned Irene. She stopped, looking at Alicia’s confused face, and frowned.</p><p>“Are you all right?” she asked.</p><p>Alicia nodded, straightening her expression.</p><p>“Yes; sorry. I was just pondering the mathematical probabilities of Gwen gobbling up twenty chocolates in under one second – “</p><p>A scream interrupted her speech. She jumped, and stared in shock at Gwendoline, who had leapt up from her chair and was spitting the chocolates – the five she had popped in her mouth at once - all over her lap; the girls stared at her.</p><p>“GWEN! What on earth has gotten into you!” exclaimed Maureen. Gwendoline was pale and looked as though she was going to be sick. She pointed at the spat out chocolate on her place. Maureen bent down, taking a closer look – and let out a disgusted squeal.</p><p>“What is up with you two? Have you gone crackers?” snapped Moira.</p><p>“It’s – it’s – “Gwendoline’s cheeks suddenly filled up, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. She ran towards the bathroom, trying to hold in her vomit.</p><p>The girls crowded around the plate and groans of disgust suddenly rang out.</p><p>For among all the chocolate Gwen had spat out, there were worms; some half-alive and wriggling, some dead and bitten in half.</p><p>“Oh, that is foul,” groaned Daphne, looking quite sick herself.</p><p>“Were they <em>inside</em> the chocolates?” asked Bill incredulously.</p><p>“Seems so,” replied Maureen, looking positively green. “Excuse me…” she ran off to the bathroom after Gwendoline, hand clamped above her mouth.</p><p>Alicia stood in shock, gob smacked. So this psycho hadn’t intended on Gwen merely squealing at the <em>sight</em> of the worms; she had intended for her to <em>eat</em> them! She felt sick to her stomach; the first was funny and harmless, the second was just plain...</p><p>“<em>Disgusting</em>,” exclaimed Catherine. “I mean, gosh, I know Gwen’s eating habits can be gross, and I know she can be awfully silly and sly – but I hardly think she deserved <em>this</em>! Poor Gwen!”</p><p>The girls stared at each other glumly. One by one, their eyes began falling on Alicia. Alicia, who forever teased Gwendoline about her gluttony.</p><p>“Jesus, Alicia,” muttered Irene.</p><p>“What?” said Alicia, looking almost as guilty as she felt.</p><p>“I thought you couldn’t possibly be behind all this…but now…” said Belinda, looking dumbfounded.</p><p>“You think I would waste my time putting worms inside chocolates?” asked Alicia incredulously.</p><p>“I saw your face when Gwen opened her bag and took out that box, Alicia. You looked as though you knew exactly what was going to happen,” said Irene, her brow furrowed.</p><p>“Was that what you were doing, when I saw you in the grounds and you said you were gardening? Looking for worms?” gasped Catherine, looking appalled.</p><p>“You never do any gardening, Alicia,” said Bill incredulously.</p><p>“You don’t know anything about me,” snapped Alicia, hurt. She couldn’t believe the girls actually thought it had been her. All she had done was look for the worms!</p><p> “You know, I don’t quite understand all this,” said Sally suddenly, frowning. “I know you, Alicia; you’re not a liar. But you also look as though you had something to do with this. And you also looked like you had something to do with – that trick that was played on me.”</p><p>“I didn’t do any of those tricks,” insisted Alicia.</p><p>The girls looked at each other uneasily. They felt sure Alicia was telling the truth; she always did. But they were also certain there was something she wasn’t saying.</p><p>“If you honestly believe I could have done these things, then none of you are friends of mine,” said Alicia shortly, and turned on her heel. She marched off to find Betty, leaving the girls quite speechless.</p><p>“I do hate all this,” sighed Mary-Lou, looking on the verge of tears. She hated scenes, and it seemed like there were awful scenes happening every day!</p><p>Alicia found Betty down by the pool, her feet in the water. She felt a rush of affection for her best friend; there was somebody who never, ever doubted her. She rushed over to her and told her everything, in her usual nonchalant voice – which didn’t fool Betty one bit. In her experience, the more nonchalant the girl seemed, the more she actually did care; she could tell she was hurt by her friends’ accusations.</p><p> “They actually believed you put <em>worms</em> in Gwendoline’s chocolates?” exclaimed Betty, her eyes wide with disbelief.</p><p>“Ssshhh!” hissed Alicia. “I don’t want this going around the whole school. It’s bad enough the fifth already think I’m a psychopath,” said Alicia, her voice dripping with scorn.</p><p>“I don’t understand it,” insisted Betty. “I mean – first Darrell thinks you played that prank on Sally – and now all of them think you did this to Gwendoline! They’ve never thought you capable of such things before. Why, when Moira got those poisonous letters from June last year and she thought it had been you, Darrell and Sally backed you up,” she frowned.</p><p>Alicia sighed. She hadn’t told Betty the whole story, of course; not because she didn’t trust her with Sam’s secret, but because she knew her friend’s loose tongue. She never meant to blurt out things, yet often did, and this was something that couldn’t come out.</p><p>“I don’t know,” she sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need any of them,” she shrugged, assuming her usual I-don’t-care attitude which didn’t fool Betty one bit.</p><p>“You <em>didn’t</em> have anything to do with those tricks, did you?” frowned Betty. “You can tell me if you did; I won’t sneak. Maybe you got carried away…”</p><p>“Not you as well,” groaned Alicia. “I’m telling you; I didn’t play those tricks on them!”</p><p>“I know you didn’t…but that’s not what I asked. I asked if you had anything to do with them…even a little.”</p><p>Alicia stared at her friend. How on earth did the girl know her so well?</p><p>“I know when you’re hiding something, Alicia,” said Betty.</p><p>Alicia was silent for a moment. Then she spoke, her voice low.</p><p>“I’m being blackmailed, Betty” she finally admitted. Betty frowned, looking worried.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“I mean – I’ve been getting notes. Telling me to do things; tasks. I stole Belinda’s book and sneaked it into Sally and Darrell’s study. And then I got another note telling me to collect some worms in a box and put it in Gwen’s bag. But that’s all I did!” she insisted, her eyes wide. “You’ve got to believe me!”</p><p>“What can this person possibly have on you to make <em>you</em> follow orders and do stupid tasks?” exclaimed Betty, amazed.  </p><p>“It’s – not on me, exactly…it’s on Sam…”</p><p>Even before Alicia told her what it was, Betty sighed. If there was anything Alicia cared about, it was her family. This psycho certainly knew exactly where everyone’s weak spots were, thought Betty; and if she had managed to find Alicia’s, she could find anybody’s.</p><hr/><p>Mary-Lou threw herself on the ground, panting, her white, delicate face red from exertion, drops of sweat dripping from her strands of mousy brown hair. She was not used to this kind of training; why, she usually tried to avoid sports altogether. Whatever had possessed her to say yes to Darrell? And to replace Alicia, of all people. It was like replacing Mavis with Maureen in an opera, or Irene with the tone-deaf Gwendoline for a piano concert!</p><p>“You’re getting much better, Mary-Lou!” said Darrell encouragingly, sitting down beside her on the grass.</p><p>Mary-Lou looked at Darrell’s dark eyes, curly hair and strong figure and remembered exactly why she had said yes to her; to please her, and because she had felt needed by Darrell, which was all she had ever wanted. Ever since they were twelve, Darrell had had the power to make Mary-Lou do anything she asked for her. If Darrell needed a hand with something or a favor, she could always count on the adoring Mary-Lou to rush to her aid. The thing was, she hardly ever needed anything from the shy, quiet Mary-Lou; so when she did need something, Mary-Lou at once went out of her way to do that for her.</p><p>“Do you really think so?” asked Mary-Lou, sitting up, searching for the approval she so craved from the other girl.</p><p>“I do! You just need to believe in yourself more, old thing,” smiled Darrell, giving her a pat on the back. Mary-Lou blushed at the touch.</p><p>“I’m not anywhere near as good as Alicia,” she sighed.</p><p>Darrell frowned at the mention of the girl.</p><p>“Sod Alicia,” she replied. “It’s her own fault. If she had just apologized to Moira she could have avoided all this hassle.”</p><p>Mary-Lou looked at Darrell.</p><p>“Say, you don’t think she really could have played all these awful tricks, do you?” she asked, her eyes wide and nervous. She didn’t want to believe Alicia could do something like that – she liked the girl, even though she was nervous of that sharp tongue at times. Then again, Alicia was always quite gentle when teasing her; she never made really cutting remarks towards her the way she did to Gwendoline or Moira.</p><p>“I don’t know,” replied Darrell. “I know she’s not a liar, and I <em>am</em> sorry I lost my temper with her like that – but I can’t help thinking she had something to do with it.”</p><p>Darrell sighed and frowned.</p><p>“It’s strange; no matter what Alicia does, or how hard or cruel or infuriating she is – I can’t help being fond of her. It’s like I have her on a pedestal, or something…” she trailed off, smiling weakly. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”</p><p>“That’s all right,” replied Mary-Lou. “You look up to her…the way I look up to you.”</p><p>Darrell looked into her eyes so intensely then that Mary-Lou’s heart skipped a few beats.</p><p>“Why do you look up to me? I’m nothing special,” muttered Darrell.</p><p>“Because…” Mary-Lou didn’t quite know what to answer to that. <em>Because you’re strong, and courageous, and perfect?</em></p><p>A sudden, instinctive, desperate impulse took over her and she leaned forward, capturing Darrell’s lips with her own; the sparks flew from her chest as she did, an electric ripple running through her body, and she realized at once she had been wanting to do this for years – but there were no sparks flying back.</p><p>Darrell pulled away instantly, shock written all over her face.</p><p>“What are you doing?!” she exclaimed. Was that a look of confusion or disgust? Mary-Lou wasn’t sure, but either way, it sent pangs of hurt to her stomach.</p><p>“I’m…I’m sorry…” she whispered, her thin voice hardly audible. “Darrell, I didn’t mean to, I’m so sorry…”</p><p>“No,” Darrell stood up quickly, an indiscernible look on her face. Mary-Lou almost would have preferred her to be angry; she looked almost – pitying. And for some reason, guilty. Darrell opened her mouth, as if she was about to say something else – then clamped it shut, turned on her heel and hurried back towards the building.</p><p>Mary-Lou sat still, practically unbreathing, feeling exposed, scared and humiliated. What had she done? What a stupid, stupid impulse!</p><p>She began to shake, her eyes filling with tears. She buried her face in her hands and let out a desperate sob.</p><p>She felt a hand on her shoulder, and for a second she thought maybe it was Darrell, and looked up, hopeful –</p><p>It was Alicia.</p><p>“Are you ok?” she murmured, rubbing her back gently. Mary-Lou had never seen Alicia looking concerned for anyone, let alone for her, and it made her tear up more.</p><p>“I – I don’t know what came over me, I –“ gulped Mary-Lou. She stared at the other girl, her eyes wide. “Did you see that?”</p><p>Alicia nodded, rubbing circles on her back comfortingly. For a few minutes, she was quiet, seemingly at a loss for words.</p><p>“That was so brave,” she said, at last. Mary-Lou looked up, amazed at the admiration in the other girl’s voice. She had never heard anyone admire her or call her brave, and least of all Alicia.</p><p>“It was so <em>stupid</em>,” sighed Mary-Lou, letting out a wet sort of laugh, Alicia smiled softly.</p><p>“Well…it was, a little. Just be grateful you didn’t get punched.”</p><p> Mary-Lou giggled despite her tears, shaking her head.</p><p>“I think I almost would have preferred that to the look she gave me. God, how will I ever look her in the eye again?” she sighed, burrying her head in her hands.</p><p>Alicia put her arm around the smaller girl and let out a half-comical groan, rolling her eyes.</p><p>“Here come the dramatics. Don’t beat yourself up like that. It’s not like you weren’t egged on.”</p><p>Mary-Lou frowned.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Well…let’s just say, I’m pretty sure deep down somewhere Darrell always had an inkling about your blatant crush on her,” replied Alicia, feeling guilty as she thought about how she herself knew the same exact thing about Darrell in regards to herself. “Be honest; have you never felt as though Darrell took advantage, a bit, of your constant attempts to please her? Did she ever talk you into things you didn’t really want to do?”</p><p>Mary-Lou thought about the times Darrell asked her to do some jobs for her, that fond smile on her face; how she had turned around with that slightly triumphant look when Mary-Lou had given in to being Alicia’s hockey replacement; how she had talked her into being Cinderella at the pantomime, telling Mary-Lou she would be <em>so</em> disappointed if she said no…how she would smile at her the way owners smiled at their obedient, adoring little lap dogs.</p><p>“You’ve put her on a pedestal, old thing. You deserve someone who puts you on a pedestal back,” said Alicia.</p><p>“Since when are you such a love expert?” asked Mary-Lou, laughing.</p><p>“What can I say, I have hidden depths,” drawled Alicia. She got suddenly sprang up to her feet and held out her hand. “Come on. Let’s go to town.”</p><p>“What?” laughed Mary-Lou.</p><p>“Let’s go and have some fun. We could have tea there – I don’t feel like facing the girls tonight, and I know you don’t feel like facing Darrell. It’s a win-win,” grinned Alicia.</p><p><em>Why not?</em> Thought Mary-Lou. She took the taller girl’s hand, who grinned devilishly and yanked her up. They ran towards the gates, giggling, pleased to be leaving the school drama behind them for a few hours. And oh, what drama they would get when they returned!</p><hr/><p>Darrell’s mind was in a spiral as she walked back inside the school building, her breathing quick and ragged. A million thoughts ran through her mind at once and yet she felt numb; she was confused and yet not surprised at all at what had just happened.</p><p>All she could think about was how she had just realized she wanted to press her lips to Alicia’s the way Mary-Lou had pressed her lips to her own.</p><p>Suddenly it all began to make sense in her mind; why having Sally as best friend had never quite been enough, why she couldn’t seem to help defending Alicia and fighting tooth and nail for her whenever she got into trouble, why she had felt so hurt and betrayed when she had seen the look of guilt on her face the day of Sally’s prank.</p><p>She made her way to her study, not noticing anyone she passed, her head in a whirl.</p><p>Sally was there, sitting at their table, revising for their upcoming history exam. She looked up and smiled rather tightly at her friend, and then frowned at the look on her face.</p><p>“Say, Darrell…are you all right?” she asked.</p><p>Darrell nodded. Then she shook her head. Then she shrugged, letting out a sigh, and sat down on the chair opposite Sally’s.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” frowned Sally.</p><p>Darrell looked at her, wondering whether to tell her what had just happened or not. Her thoughts were muddled up, and that usually meant her words would come out muddled as well.</p><p>“Something strange just happened,” she finally spoke, her voice almost as thin and quiet as Mary-Lou’s.</p><p>Sally closed her book and stared at Darrell.</p><p>“Tell me,” she replied.</p><p>“I don’t know if I can,” said Darrell, nibbling at her lip, pulling at the skin absent-mindedly.</p><p>“Of course you can, idiot. You can tell me anything, you know that.”</p><p>Sally folded her hands on her lap and waited patiently. She knew it was best not to push Darrell to speak about something she found hard to express.</p><p>Finally, Darrell told her what had happened with Mary-Lou, nervously pulling at the skin on her lip as she did so, her eyes fixed on her hands.</p><p>She looked up to see Sally looking confused and slightly shocked. She took a deep breath and let it out with a blow.</p><p>“Wow,” she muttered at last. She hadn’t quite expected that. “And…did you reciprocate?” she asked, her eyes wide.</p><p>Darrell shook her head.</p><p>“No – I was quite dreadful about it, actually.”</p><p>“Oh, Darrell – you didn’t lose your temper with her, did you?” asked Sally, worried.</p><p>“No! Nothing like that…but I was rather short with her. I just walked away, and she looked so mortified,” sighed Darrell.</p><p>“Well…it was a shock, I suppose,” said Sally, comfortingly.</p><p>“That’s just the thing, though – it wasn’t, really. I think deep down I always knew Mary-Lou felt like that,” replied Darrell.</p><p>“Oh, I don’t know – I knew she admired you, and looked up to you – but I never imagined anything of that sort,” replied Sally slowly, her voice tinged with slight disapproval.</p><p>“I knew I had some sort of power over her – and I used it, lots of times,” sighed Darrell. “She didn’t want to be Alicia’s replacement in hockey, and I knew that – but I also knew if I insisted a little, she would give in, because I <em>knew</em>, Sally, I could make her do anything I wanted – oh, it sounds so horrid,” sighed Darrell. “I think – oh, Sally,” she sighed again.</p><p>“What?” Sally egged her on, looking confused.</p><p>“I think I’ve been doing to Mary-Lou what Alicia’s been doing to me,” she muttered.</p><p>Sally frowned.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Well – Alicia could always make me take her side in anything,” said Darrell, “and she knew it. She knows how I feel about her and she toys with me, you know? All the time. All those times you said to me, Sally, ‘why do you care so much, why do you always defend her’…well…it’s because I feel about her the way Mary-Lou feels about me. I’ve been just as bad to Mary-Lou as Alicia has been with me. I’ve always let her put me on a pedestal and then taken advantage of that admiration. It’s so clear now,” blurted out Darrell, slightly breathless.</p><p>Sally was still, her brain trying to process all this.</p><p>“So you want to – <em>kiss</em> Alicia?” she asked; she was trying not to judge her friend, but it was hard. Sally always had been so very sensible and straight laced, and had always been taught this kind of thing just wasn’t done.</p><p>Darrell nodded, looking slightly scared.</p><p>“You don’t hate me, do you, Sally?” she whispered. “I know it’s strange.”</p><p>Sally was quiet for a few seconds then shook her head.</p><p>“No, Darrell; of course I don’t. I won’t lie, I do think it’s rather queer – but I just want you to be happy. You know that,” she replied softly. “You know, somehow this – it changes my perspective. I always thought you liked Alicia more than me, in the sense of wanting her as a best friend. Now I realize she was never my competition – it was something entirely different you wanted with her.”</p><p>“Oh, Sally, I never liked Alicia more than you!” exclaimed Darrell. “You’re like my sister; nobody can compete with you, nobody!”</p><p>“I thought I was – well, your consolation prize, since you didn’t have Alicia’s best friend,” she said. “When all this time, it was that you wanted her as – well, as a lover of sorts – not as a sister.”</p><p>“I could never see Alicia as a sister,” groaned Darrell. “She could never take your place as my bestest friend. What an idiot you are, old thing.”</p><p>Sally felt like a huge weight of confusion had been lifted off her shoulders; she saw everything clearly now. How ridiculous she had been! But something still bothered her.</p><p>“Say, Darrell…I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but…do you really think Alicia is right for you? I just…you with Alicia, it always felt one-sided, even when I thought it was only about friendship.”</p><p>Darrell smiled wryly.</p><p>“I expect you’re right, as usual. I think if I did kiss her, she’d react quite the same way I did with Mary-Lou.”</p><p>“Well…it’s her loss,” smiled Sally, punching her friend lightly on the shoulder.</p><p>“Also, after what she did to you, I don’t even want to anymore,” said Darrell defiantly.</p><p>Sally raised her eyebrows disbelievingly.</p><p>“Well…maybe a little,” she admitted.</p><p>Sally laughed, shaking her head.</p><p>“You don’t <em>really</em> think Alicia was behind all these pranks, do you?”</p><p>Darrell sighed and shrugged. She didn’t, really. But she knew she definitely had something to do with it, and she intended on finding out exactly what it was. As much as she crushed on Alicia, <em>nobody</em> hurt her best friend.</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you enjoyed this one! It's a bit all over the place, I know - but I wanted to give all the characters a bit of "screen time"!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Pride</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mary-Lou had always loved fun fairs; a place full of bright, dazzling colors and sparkly lights, the perfect escape from the drama-filled real world. When she was little, she had sometimes gone off on her own, to escape the constant rows between her mother and father; her father’s angry, loud voice and her mother’s shaky, soft tone quavering, threatening to break.</p><p>“I can’t imagine you going off on your own! Weren’t you scared?” asked Alicia, surprised, after Mary-Lou had told her this.</p><p>“I was…but I was more scared of my father,” replied Mary-Lou.</p><p>“So it was a matter of whatever made you less scared, then.”</p><p>“I guess…or a matter of knowing the benefits after the fear. It was stay with them all day or face going on my own and having a good time, even if it did scare me.”</p><p>Alicia looked at the smaller girl thoughtfully as they strolled among the rides and lights, biting her caramel covered apple.</p><p>“Didn’t you have any friends to go with you?”</p><p>Mary-Lou smiled and shook her head.</p><p>“I was much too scared of other kids to make friends!”</p><p>Alicia giggled and stared with something like wonder at the girl.</p><p>“What?” asked Mary-Lou, blushing slightly at the sudden fixation on her.</p><p>“Nothing. Just…you’ve grown so much since we were kids. You used to be so scared of everything, and now you’re so much better.”</p><p>“I’m still scared of bugs,” replied Mary-Lou, her eyes wide. Alicia gave a chuckle.</p><p>“You’re a contradiction, aren’t you? You’re scared of bugs, yet you’re brave enough to kiss someone you’re not certain feels the same way – and a girl at that!” exclaimed Alicia. “I could never do that.”</p><p>“Never kiss a girl?” inquired Mary-Lou. Alicia chuckled.</p><p>“No…be the first to make a move, knowing it’s possible I’ll be rejected. Showing feelings and all that…not my thing.”</p><p>Mary-Lou smiled, taking a bite out of her own apple.</p><p>“Well…I guess I just went for it…like I just went for it and sent that parcel for Daphne back in the second form with that storm. I guess I learned I’m braver when I don’t overthink it. I could never have done something like that in the first form, though,” she added with a little laugh.</p><p>“You can say that again! You practically <em>shook</em> whenever Darrell talked to you in the first form!” laughed Alicia, nudging her playfully.</p><p>“Oh, and I also thought the key to her heart would be to follow her around like a dog and do her chores for her! Don’t even start; so embarrassing,” Mary-Lou groaned.</p><p>“And then she sent you to do <em>my</em> chores and somehow you thought that would be the key!” added Alicia, grinning.</p><p>“When really she was just trying to get rid of me by dispatching me off to you!” sighed Mary-Lou. “I mean, even after that, and after so many things making it blatantly obvious she doesn’t feel that way about me, I still held some hope that – well – she would kiss me back.”</p><p>Alicia took Mary-Lou’s hand and squeezed it.</p><p>“It’s her loss,” she replied.</p><p>An elderly woman next to them eyed their hands suspiciously, disapproval written all over her face. Alicia dropped the other girl’s hand and cleared her throat.</p><p>“Anyway…lets go on that ride!” she exclaimed, breaking the silence, nodding towards a particularly frightening but adrenaline-inducing looking ride. Mary-Lou laughed and shook her head, her eyes wide.</p><p>“You’re insane.”</p><p>“Come on! I dare you!”</p><p>“Well – “ Mary-Lou wavered, torn between her fear and her desire for fun, and Alicia, once again, marveled at how Mary-Lou seemed to almost revel in her fear – the opposite of cowardice, she thought. She was scared of things, true, but the thought of doing things that scared her seemed to excite and thrill her in a way.</p><p>“Just don’t think about it. Go for it,” said Alicia, her eyes gleaming.</p><p>“You’re right,” whispered Mary-Lou, letting out an excited giggle. She let the other girl grab her and pull her towards the scary-looking ride, laughing, thinking how fun it was to be with Alicia, and forget all the drama.</p><p>Alas, there certainly would be drama when they returned!</p><hr/><p>“What’s all this?” asked Alicia brightly, entering the common room. Mary-Lou followed, smiling, her eyes wide and nervous at the thought of having to face Darrell again.</p><p>The girls were crowded around one of the walls, staring at something Alicia and Mary-Lou couldn’t see from where they stood. Their brightness faded as they realized something bad had happened, once again.</p><p>They made their way towards the wall and gasped as they saw what was plastered on it. It was a newspaper article, with a photograph of a man who looked very familiar, and as they saw Moira’s face, pale and stricken, it was apparent who this man reminded them so much off. The headline above the photograph read “TREASON!”, and underneath it: “Captain Rowlings sentenced to life imprisonment.” Underneath the article, was another sheet of paper plastered on the wall, that read: “The best cure for this dictator’s PRIDE is some good old fashioned SHAME. Not so proud now everyone knows you’re the daughter of a traitor and a nazi! – THE PUNISHER.”</p><p>The girls were aghast.</p><p>“Moira…is that really…” began Darrell, her voice hushed.</p><p>“Yes,” replied Moira faintly. She stood in shock, shaking. She definitely felt shame; the punisher had succeeded. The past had crept up on her unannounced, making her the target for anger, disapproval and, worst of all, that <em>pity</em>. She saw it now on some of the girls faces, beneath the shock, and shook her head. She couldn’t take this, not again.</p><p>“Excuse me,” she said, her voice hoarse, turning around and walking away, away from the stares and the shock and the pity. She wasn’t quite sure how she managed to get down the stairs and to the grounds, but somehow she got there, her breath short and ragged. She walked and walked until she reached the end of the school grounds, and slumped down on the wet, dewy grass, burying her head in her hands.</p><p>Her head was in such a spiral she hardly noticed Alicia sitting beside her. She jumped at the sudden realization and stared at the girl, who was fumbling around in her pocket.</p><p>“Have you come to gloat, or something?” she tried to snap, but it came out as an exhausted sigh.</p><p>“I mean, I could – but I won’t,” replied Alicia, producing a cigarette from her pocket and putting it between her teeth. She frowned as she lit it, and took a drag. “Even I have limits, believe it or not.”</p><p>She offered a cigarette and the lighter to the head girl, who regarded them with desire, but shot Alicia a suspicious look. Alicia rolled her eyes and poked her with the cigarette.</p><p>“Oh, come on,” she muttered.</p><p>Moira took it and lit it, feeling slightly more relaxed as she took the first drag.</p><p>“Thanks,” she murmured gruffly.</p><p>“You’re welcome,” replied Alicia.</p><p>There was a short silence.</p><p>“You know, it wasn’t me,” began Alicia. Moira snorted.</p><p>“I know, you moron. You weren’t even in the school all evening.”</p><p>“Well, everyone seems intent on considering me prime suspect, so I thought I’d clear it up just in case. Maybe people think I can teleport now or something,” shrugged Alicia.</p><p>“Is that why you followed me out here, to clear your name?” asked Moira stiffly.</p><p>Alicia shook her head and hesitated.</p><p>“No, I just wanted to say…I know how it feels to have a family secret. It’s awful someone exposed yours like this. Whoever did it, had no right.”</p><p>Moira sighed.</p><p>“It’s just…I’m so, so ashamed of him, you know,” she muttered, taking a drag. She looked at Alicia and frowned.</p><p>“Why did you think I’d suspect you? Did you have something to do with the other tricks?”</p><p>Alicia was silent as she exhaled the cigarette smoke slowly.</p><p>“Well…I’ve been threatened to do some things. I didn’t actually play the tricks myself, but I did help in a few. Whoever did do them says she knows about something my brother did,” sighed Alicia.</p><p>“Can’t be worse than what my father did,” shrugged Moira.</p><p>“No…but it could ruin him,” replied Alicia.</p><p>They were silent for a few seconds, watching the smoke leave their lips and fly up into the night sky, joining the clouds covering the stars.</p><p>“Well, I think you should tell them. Us. Whatever it is. That way, whoever it is won’t have that power over you anymore,” replied Moira after a while. Alicia chuckled dryly.</p><p>“She could still tell the police,” she remarked. “Sam, he…he accidentally harmed out town mayor’s son. Nobody knows it was him, but if they did, he would be ruined. He could go to prison. The mayor’s absolutely unforgiving.”</p><p>Moira stared.</p><p>“How did he harm him?”</p><p>Alicia sighed.</p><p>“He played the stupidest, oldest trick on him. He left a banana peel on the floor for him to slip and fall – and he did. Problem was, he fell really badly and hit his head on a nearby chair. He hit it really hard and started bleeding. He was rushed to hospital and when he woke up he couldn’t remember the last five years.”</p><p>Moira let out a low whistle.</p><p>“Jesus christ.”</p><p>“I know…I didn’t do anything, either. I know I should have told him to own up, but…well, I didn’t do anything.”</p><p>“That’s awful. I’m sorry,” replied Moira, shaking her head.</p><p>“You’re sorry? What for?” laughed Alicia.</p><p>“I don’t know...I always found it annoying when people said they were sorry about my father, and here I am doing the same thing,” smiled Moira dryly.</p><p>They laughed and another silence fell over them. Alicia took the last drag out of her cigarette and put it out on the grass.</p><p>“You can have your spot back on the hockey team, you know,” said Moira gruffly. Alicia laughed.</p><p>“I had almost forgotten about that. Well, since you’re letting go of your pride, I’ll let go of mine and accept. I’ll re-join. And I’m sorry for...” she trailed off and frowned. “Why was it we argued?”</p><p>“You know, I’ve actually forgotten,” admitted Moira.</p><p>Alicia rolled her eyes in disbelief.</p><p>“Seriously? You banned me from hockey and you can’t even remember the reason? You b- oh, that was it. I called you a bitch.”</p><p>“That’s it!” exclaimed Moira.</p><p>They laughed and their eyes met, their gaze lingering just a bit too long. Not quite knowing what she was doing, Alicia leaned in and captured the other girl’s lips with her own. Moira raised her eyebrows in surprise and returned it for just a few seconds before they broke apart. They stared at each other.</p><p>“Well…that was…” began Moira, not knowing quite what to say. They slowly both began shaking their heads.</p><p>“...weird,” finished Alicia with her usual tact. Moira snorted and suddenly they both burst into a fit of laughter.</p><p>“I felt absolutely nothing,” added Alicia.</p><p>“Nothing at all. What on earth did you do that for?” exclaimed Moira, laughing.</p><p>“I don’t know, to be frank,” laughed Alicia. “I thought well, might as well give it a go. Since we’re letting go of pride and all that. And now you’ve wounded mine,” she gave an expression of mock hurt. “Good thing we <em>didn’t</em> feel anything. Can you imagine us as a couple?”</p><p>Moira snorted.</p><p>“We’d argue and nobody would ever apologize.”</p><p>Alicia stood up and held out her hand to pull the other girl up.</p><p>“Come on. At least I cheered you up a bit before you face the others! I thought you weren’t capable of such a thing as cheering up but…”</p><p>Moira gave her a swat on the head and they both made their way back into the school building. She groaned as she saw someone gaping at them a few feet away: Bill, who had come out to see if Moira was all right and had obviously seen everything.</p><p>“Oh <em>god</em>,” she groaned.</p><p>“Don’t worry, Bill’s hardly going to disapprove of a kiss between girls,” remarked Alicia.</p><p>“No; she’ll be <em>unbearable</em>. First she wanted me to go for Daphne, and now she’ll…”</p><p>“Daphne, hey?” exclaimed Alicia, grinning from ear to ear. “Do tell!”</p><p>“Not you too,” groaned Moira as they caught up with Bill.</p><p>“What’s going on between this one and our Daphne then?” Alicia asked Bill wickedly, grinning widely.</p><p>Bill frowned, confused, staring between Moira and Alicia.</p><p>“You just…you two…I just saw you…” she began, attempting to form a coherent sentence.</p><p>“Old news, Billy. She’s moved on to Daphne now.”</p><p>“I have not <em>moved on to Daphne</em> – “began Moira hotly.</p><p>“She stood her up,” said Bill, staring in amazement at Alicia.</p><p>“What?! How could <em>you</em> stand <em>Daphne</em> up?!” exclaimed Alicia.</p><p>“That’s what I said!” said Bill.</p><p>“I didn’t…I…”</p><p>“Ah-ha! So <em>she</em> stood <em>you</em> up!” said Alicia, sharp and hitting the nail on the head as always.</p><p>“That definitely would make more sense,” nodded Bill.</p><p>“Thanks a lot,” snapped Moira, swatting them both on the head and striding on ahead. Bill and Alicia exchanged a bemused look and hurried on after her, entering the school.</p><hr/><p>Back in the common room, the girls were quiet. The clock ticked like a time bomb, and in a way it seemed like there was one; the ticking time before the punisher would strike again. Nobody knew quite what to say, and one by one, they began leaving for their studies or the bedroom.</p><p>“This is all so beastly,” muttered Sally as she headed back with Darrell to their study for a cup of tea.</p><p>“Do you think we should go and see Moira in her study?” asked Darrell, relying on her best friend’s superior knowledge on what to do in these situations.</p><p>Sally thought for a moment and shook her head.</p><p>“I think we shouldn’t make a big thing out of this. She clearly didn’t want any of us to know about her father, and knowing Moira, the last thing she needs is pity. I think some small words of comfort tomorrow would do.”</p><p>Darrell nodded, marvelling at her friend's knowledge when it came to dealing with people.</p><p>“You’re right. I feel I should probably apologize to Alicia. She obviously didn’t have anything to do with it this time, which means she isn’t the one behind all this after all.”</p><p>Sally nodded and sighed.</p><p>“I can’t believe anyone would do these things. They're ghastly tricks,” she said, shaking her head in disgust.</p><p>“Who do you think it could be?” wondered Darrell.</p><p>“My first thought would be Gwendoline; she's the only one who I think would be sneaky and cunning enough to do something like this…but she had a trick played on her too, so it's unlikely. Maybe Maureen?”</p><p>Darrell frowned and shrugged.</p><p>“Could be. She doesn’t seem to me to have the brains for that sort of thing, though.”</p><p>"Whoever it is will be found out. These things always come to light eventually," murmured Sally, but she looked uncertain.</p><p>Darrell nodded, looking miserable. She felt terrible. She had fought with Alicia and given her a black eye for nothing; she hadn't even been in school when this trick had happened. And whoever did this obviously did the rest of the beastly tricks. </p><p><em>I'll apologise tomorrow</em>, she thought to herself, sipping her tea, trying to get the desire that arose in her whenever she thought of the girl out of her mind. It scared her to think she was capable of hurting anyone so badly, let alone the person she felt this way about; it made her feel truly like a monster. Like the worst sinner. There was only one probing, relentless thought in her mind, as clear as day: the punisher would punish her for her wrath soon.</p><p>And honestly, she would deserve it.</p><hr/><p>Daphne stood outside Moira’s study, frozen to the spot. Should she knock? Should she walk away? She fidgeted with her gloves, wincing at the pain she still felt when they rubbed against her raw, burned skin.</p><p>“Daphne? What are you doing?”</p><p>She swiveled around to face Clarissa, standing behind her, a confused and slightly bemused expression on her face. Clarissa was one of the only girls Daphne envied anything when it came to looks: that magnificent mass of red hair and those green eyes. She was content with her blonde curls and blue eyes, and knew she was beautiful – but Clarissa’s beauty was so unique, so striking and unexpected, somehow.</p><p>“I was just…” she trailed off, lost for words.</p><p>“Just about to knock, perhaps?” said Clarissa, raising her eyebrows.</p><p>“Yes…I mean, no!” she hissed, as Clarissa raised her hand to knock herself.</p><p>Clarissa stared and let out a soft giggle.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” replied Daphne, biting her lip.</p><p>Clarissa rolled her eyes and pulled the girl away from the door.</p><p>“Come on. I was going to check on Moira, but I think you need checking on also.”</p><p>She marched the blonde to her study.</p><p>“Isn’t Bill in?” asked Daphne.</p><p>“No…she’s with Moira.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>They walked in and Clarissa put the kettle on the little stove they had.</p><p>“So, tell me. What’s going on with you two?” asked Clarissa, as she reached out to take two mugs from the small cupboard next to her.</p><p>“I – I don’t know, exactly,” sighed Daphne. “Whatever there might have been, I ruined it.”</p><p>“Why? I thought it was Moira who didn’t show up to your coffee meeting,” frowned Clarissa.</p><p>Daphne stared.</p><p>“Is that what she said?” she asked, slightly incredulously.</p><p>“To preserve her pride, I expect,” sighed Clarissa. “Poor Moira. Seems she got her punishment for that pride of hers. It’s so awful.”</p><p>“Whoever’s doing all this is stupid. Curing pride with shame? That only makes it worse, doesn’t it?” said Daphne, shaking her head.</p><p>Clarissa nodded in agreement as the kettle began to boil. She poured the hot water into the mugs.</p><p>“Do you take sugar, or milk?” she asked.</p><p>“Five sugars and one milk, please,” replied Daphne.</p><p>“<em>Five</em> sugars?” laughed Clarissa, raising her eyebrows. “I thought Bill’s four were bad enough!”</p><p>Daphne laughed and took the mug the redhead handed to her, and then they both sat down at the table. They took a sip and sighed contentedly.</p><p>“So. You were the one who didn’t show up, then?” asked Clarissa after a short, comfortable silence. Daphne nodded.</p><p>“I had an accident,” she confessed. “And…well, I couldn’t make it.”</p><p>Clarissa frowned.</p><p>“What sort of accident?”</p><p>Daphne sighed and bit her lip.</p><p>“You’re going to really think badly of me,” she replied.</p><p>“It’s all right. You don’t have to tell me. I think you should tell Moira, though, whatever it is. I think she really likes you,” said Clarissa, taking another sip.</p><p>“She won’t like me anymore if I tell her this,” sighed Daphne.</p><p>“It can’t be that bad,” protested Clarissa. She frowned and stared at the other girl’s hands. “Why are you wearing gloves inside? Aren’t you hot?”</p><p>Daphne sighed and took off her gloves. Clarissa stared at the red welts and gasped.</p><p>“Daphne! What happened?” she exclaimed.</p><p>“It was…a punishment,” muttered Daphne, tears coming to her eyes.</p><p>“Punishment? For what?” Clarissa opened her eyes wide. “Not…was this one of those tricks? I can’t believe it! How awful!”</p><p>Daphne nodded.</p><p>“Whatever for? Not lust, was it?” she pressed.</p><p>“No…greed,” sighed Daphne, looking down at her burned hands.</p><p>Clarissa was silent for a moment.</p><p>“Look…whatever it was, doesn’t give anyone the right to…how did this even happen?”</p><p>Suddenly, Bill came in, Moira and Alicia behind her.</p><p>“Clar, we’ve come for a game of cards if you fancy…oh. Daphne – hi,” Bill said awkwardly, spotting the girl sitting on the table. Daphne hastily tried to put her gloves back on, but Alicia’s sharp eyes had already noticed them.</p><p>“Jesus, what the hell happened to your hands?” said Alicia, shocked.</p><p>“Nothing…an accident,” muttered Daphne. “I should go…”</p><p>“No. We’ll go,” said Clarissa, simply. “Moira, you stay. Daphne wants to speak to you.”</p><p>“What?” Bill began, confused, and fell silent at the warning look from her girlfriend’s face. “Um…all right then…”</p><p>They were ushered out – pushed out, to be precise – by Clarissa, ignoring Alicia’s protests of ‘but I want to know too!’ and Daphne and Moira were left to stare awkwardly at each other in silence.</p><p>Moira cleared her throat.</p><p>“Look, you don’t have to – “</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Daphne cut across her.</p><p>Moira frowned.</p><p>“For what?”</p><p>“For all this that just happened…it’s awful.”</p><p>Moira shrugged.</p><p>“Hardly your fault.”</p><p>There was a short, uncomfortable silence.</p><p>“I’m also sorry for not showing up the other day,” she murmured. Moira shrugged again.</p><p>“I actually forgot to go, so…”</p><p>Daphne sighed and gave her a wry smile – only Daphne could make a wry smile charming, Moira thought.</p><p>“No, you didn’t.”</p><p>Moira sighed and looked away, staring at the wall.</p><p>“What do you want, Daphne?” she asked curtly.</p><p>“Well…to apologize.”</p><p>“Apology accepted. Is that all?”</p><p>Daphne hesitated, pulling at one of her curls. Moira frowned and her expression softened slightly as she saw the burns once more.</p><p>“What happened to your hand?” she asked. There was concern in her voice and Daphne sighed, knowing that concern would turn to disgust in a few seconds.</p><p>“Well, it’s the reason I couldn’t go to meet you. I got burned,” she began slowly, not quite knowing how to put what happened into words. Moira’s brow furrowed deeper.</p><p>“What do you mean – by accident?”</p><p>Daphne shook her head.</p><p>“No. Someone burned me. As a trick, I guess.”</p><p>Moira shook her head in confusion.</p><p>“But…why? How?”</p><p>“Greed,” gulped Daphne, her voice wavering. “I was punished. For stealing.”</p><p>There was another longer silence, only broken by the quiet sound of the ticking clock on the wall.</p><p>“Jesus,” muttered Moira.</p><p>“I know. I’m awful,” sighed Daphne, blinking back tears.</p><p>“I mean – not as awful as whoever burned you,” replied Moira, frowning. “What was it you stole?”</p><p>Daphne explained the whole story; how she had stolen the perfume, and how it had burned her skin. How she couldn’t seem to help stealing.</p><p>“You think I’m terrible, don’t you?” murmured Daphne, hardly daring to look at the girl, who was staring at her in stunned silence.</p><p>“No,” began Moira, slowly. “I don’t think you’re awful. I think you might need help. Professional help, like a psychologist.”</p><p>“Oh, god, you think I’m mad then,” replied Daphne, her eyes wide. Moira chuckled softly and shook her head.</p><p>“A psychologist isn’t only for mad people. My mother had to get some professional help after – well, after my father, and after she divorced him. She wouldn’t get out of bed for months. She went to see a doctor – a psychologist – and she got better. Even remarried.”</p><p>“Is Linton your stepfather’s name then?” asked Daphne, curiously.</p><p>Moira nodded and smiled wearily.</p><p>“Yes. We don’t always get on all that well – but he’s been good for my mother. And for us. He pays our school fees, so I’m grateful for that.”</p><p> “Sally wants to go in for Psychology in college…maybe I could talk to her,” said Daphne thoughtfully.</p><p>Moira reached out awkwardly and touched her hand gently. Daphne flinched.</p><p>“Sorry…does it hurt?”</p><p>“A bit. It’s healing, though.”</p><p>They sat in silence, a more comfortable one this time, while they tentatively caressed and played with each other’s fingers. Daphne could feel her heart beating loudly as they touched, and took a deep breath as she looked up, marveling at the electric jolts those eyes made her feel.</p><p>“We could have that meeting tomorrow, if you want. I’ll – um – remember to go this time,” murmured Moira, smiling sheepishly.</p><p>Daphne rolled her eyes slightly and smiled back.</p><p>“All right. I’ll try not to get burned this time.”</p><p>Their lips were inches from each other now. Moira hesitated, her pride, as usual, holding her back from action. Then, in a leap of faith, she let go of that stupid pride and leaned in and pressed her lips against the blonde’s; and this time, with this kiss, she felt everything.</p><hr/><p>Sally had been surprised when Daphne had come up to her the next day, asking to talk. They had never really been friends, really, so she had no idea what she could possibly want to talk about.</p><p>She had listened patiently to Daphne talk about psychology, and about how she wasn’t crazy, but people didn’t have to be crazy to need help, did they? Another girl might have gotten impatient and told the girl to get to the point, but Sally was a good listener, and knew when people had to say something that was difficult for them, it took a few detours and ramblings to get there. But they usually did, and when Daphne did, she was slightly shocked – although she didn’t show it – but somehow not all that surprised. She sighed sympathetically and nodded.</p><p>“Kleptomania,” she said, simply. Daphne frowned at the long, difficult word.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“A strong, uncontrollable wish to steal. It’s an impulse control disorder.”</p><p>“Disorder?!” Daphne exclaimed, looking so aghast Sally couldn’t help but smile.</p><p>“Yes. It means you’re not an awful person like you say – you can’t help it. You don’t do what you do out of spite or malice – unlike the person who hurt you. But you can learn to control those impulses, with the right help. It’ll be a gradual, difficult process – but you can get better, Daphne,” said Sally, putting a comforting hand on her arm. “There’s a psychologist in town, he’s supposed to be really good, and doesn’t charge much. You should go to see him.”</p><p>“I’m sure I can’t afford it,” sighed Daphne. “My parents can barely afford to send me here.”</p><p>Sally frowned, thinking hard. She resolved, then and there, that she would think of a way to get Daphne the help she needed.</p><p>"We'll think of something," she replied, rubbing the other girl's arm warmly. </p><p>"Thanks for not judging me too harshly. Or at all. You're wonderful," smiled Daphne. "Perhaps you could be my psychologist!"</p><p>Sally laughed. </p><p>"When I've had a few years’ experience, maybe! It would be a dangerous thing to start meddling with minds without quite knowing how to!"</p><p>Darrell came into the study then, carrying her hockey stick with her, looking rather gloomy.</p><p>"Oh...hello, Daphne," she said, mildly suprised to see her there. </p><p>"Hello," replied Daphne. "I was just leaving." </p><p>She stood up, and Darrell gave her a weak smile. </p><p>"Oh, you don't have to leave on my account...say, aren't you hot with those gloves on, and that scarf?"</p><p>Daphne had to refrain from letting out an exasperated groan at the question she had been asked about a thousand times the last few days. </p><p>"No, really, I was just leaving. I think I might be coming down with a cold or something...I feel quite cold! How was the hockey tutoring with Mary-Lou?" she asked, changing the subject quickly.</p><p>"Training, you mean," replied Sally, smiling.</p><p>"Oh…it was…well, Alicia's been let back on the team," said Darrell, and Sally squealed with delight.</p><p>"Oh, Darrell, how splendid! We're sure to beat Remmington now! How come Moira changed her mind?" </p><p>Daphne blushed slightly at the mention of the girl, and felt a rush of nerves as she thought about their date this evening. Clarissa had offered to lend her one of her best dresses, which had been awfully kind of her, since the rich girl's dresses were so elegant and gorgeous - however, Daphne felt she should wear her own. It wasn't perfect, but it was hers. </p><p>“Alicia apologized, believe it or not,” replied Darrell, giving a weak laugh.</p><p>“Mary-Lou’s still going to play, though, isn’t she? She’s been working really hard,” said Sally.</p><p>“I know she really wanted to do well,” added Daphne.</p><p>“Well…I thought she wouldn’t want to anymore, but…” Darrell trailed off.</p><p>Sally’s eyes widened.</p><p>“You did ask her if she wanted to continue, I assume?”</p><p>Darrell was silent.</p><p>“What, you just – dumped her?” said Daphne incredulously. “Now Alicia’s back, she’s not worth tutoring anymore?”</p><p>“Training,” corrected Darrell, her voice meek. Daphne rolled her eyes and sighed.</p><p>"Well…is Mary-Lou all right?" asked Daphne, losing her patience.</p><p>Darrell was silent again. Daphne made an impatient sound and stood up.</p><p>“Well…thanks, Sally,” she smiled tightly. She didn’t bother saying goodbye to Darrell and walked off to find Mary-Lou.</p><p>Once she was gone, Darrell turned to Sally with a somewhat baffled expression.</p><p>"What was Daphne doing here?" she asked curiously.</p><p>"Well, I'm allowed to have other friends besides you, aren't I? Don't be so jealous," replied Sally, prodding fun at her best friend and also at her own self. Darrell laughed.</p><p>"True, looks like the tables have turned!" </p><p>"I'm glad I got a laugh out of you, anyway; you look like gloom itself! What's going on?" said Sally, frowning slightly. "Did Mary-Lou kiss you again, or something? You truly didn't ask her if she would like to play as reserve or something, even if Alicia's back?"</p><p>Darrell sighed and shook her head. How could she even begin to explain what had happened?</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you liked this chapter! (Yes, I'm having everyone kiss everyone, but it's my fic so I'm allowed! lol)</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don't think Zerelda was actually in the fifth form with them - however, I took some artistic license lol; I love that American girl, I had to include her! Hope you liked it; please comment any suggestions or constructive critisism you may have, it's always very welcome! And of course, praise is always welcome *preens, Gwendoline Mary style*</p></blockquote></div></div>
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